The crimes of alchemy
by GummieBear37
Summary: When the NCIS agents discover a golden-eyed boy at their crime scene, they find something a lot bigger then they had first thought.
1. The first meeting

**AN: I really wanted to do this, because they are two of my most favourite shows. I am very open to suggestions, ideas or hits in my story that you may wish to make. Also, the more reviews I get, the faster I will try and get more done. I hope you enjoy!**

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"Now really, Mr Palmer, you should try to keep you eyes more open when you're driving. You almost crashed into a tree more then once!" sighed Ducky, as he and his assistant, Jimmy Palmer, got out of the van, ready to collect a body from a crime scene.

"Sorry, Dr. Mallard," apologised Palmer, as he went around the back of the van to get put the usual equipment.

Once they had all of the things needed, they headed towards the rest of the other that were already on scene. It was just a bit into a forest were a girl walking her dog had found the body. It was a very gory sight, with blood-splattered all over the surrounding trees and bushes. Thankfully, she wasn't there long enough to have too much rotting on her flesh.

"Evening, Jethro," said Ducky, crouching down besides the corpus. "Now what have we here?"

"Hey, Ducky," said Gibbs, taking a large gulp of his coffee, "It's another one. Navy officer's wife cut and stabbed to death."

"The third one this month," pointed out Ziva, as she wondered around, using her flashlight to see.

"Same as the others, mid-twenties, blond, pretty," observed Tony, though he was gagging slightly at the sight.

"Oh, you've been in the wars haven't you?" Ducky commented, looking at the bruises, cuts and blood all over her, as he inserted the thermometer into the woman's liver. "Don't worry my dear, we'll get you out as soon as we can. Estimated time of death was… around 19 hours ago, so about 3am."

"Call came in one hour ago, 9pm" Said Tim, who was taking photos of the crime scene.

"Don't worry my dear, we'll get you out of here as fast as we can." Ducky said softly.

Even though the killer had already clamed two separate victims, there was still hardly any evidence to go on. There was no murder weapon, no fingerprints, no witnesses, nothing. Whoever had killed them was very good with there work. The only thing that they could verify was that whoever did it was most probably left-handed.

DiNozzo carried on taking sketches, when he suddenly heard a very faint shuffling. He froze. There it was again. Like something - or someone – moving around in the trees. He slowly reached for his gun.

"…Boss…" he whispered quietly. Gibbs turned to look at him, as did the others. Tony brought his finger to his lips and waited. There was another shuffling noise again, but this time followed by a small groan. It was defiantly someone. They all remained very quite, grabbing their guns and slowly walking towards the noise. It was coming from a part that was very deep with trees and brushes. Tim scanned his flashlight over the area. They could just about see a dark shadow of a person.

"NCIS agents! Come out with your hands where we can see them!" yelled Gibbs, thinking that they might just have caught the killer. The shadowed figure spun around and bolted.

"After him!" shouted Gibbs, running after him determined to not let him get away. This was a lot easier said then done. The person was fast. Very fast, and the surrounding areas didn't help there matters either. He was able to quickly weave in and out of the trees and bushes, unlike the field agents. Thankfully he was running in the way of the rode that ran down the edge of the woods, that made perusing him a little easier for the others.

"FREEZE!" yelled McGee, who had to stop after 5 minutes of running after him, clearly out of breath. But of course he didn't. But then again he didn't have to. Ziva did a bad sprint towards him, before she tackled him straight to the ground. She managed to pin him down, despite his attempts to push her of, and quickly cuffed his hand behind his back before he could do anything else.

"Nice one, Ziva!" Tony said, between gasping breaths, as Ziva pulled the man to his feet and the others shone their lights at him. They were surprised to realise that the man they were chasing was in fact a kid, possibly a teenager. He was wearing a black top, leather jacket, pants and boots, a bright red travelling coat and white gloves. He had long blond hair that was pulled back into a braid. His eyes were bright gold, glaring up at them, obviously not happy that they caught him and got a nasty graze on his right cheek because of Ziva, but that wasn't just it. He was coated in blood. Some of it was wet, but on the whole, it was dry and crusty. If there was ever was sign of a murderer, having a lot of blood on them would defiantly be it.

"About time we caught you, you little-" Tony started, before suddenly getting kneed in his gut by an angry child. Tony quickly backed away holding his stomach, as Ziva tried to restrain him, before she whacked him near the neck, and he slumped down, unconscious.

"Heck of a lot of trouble he's caused us," growled Gibbs, looking down at the blond.

"I'm just happy we actually found and caught him," said Tim, who had managed to catch up to them by now.

"Well, that makes two of us!" grunted Tony, who was still in pain from that hard, swift kick he just got.

"We'd better get him back home," sighed Gibbs, as he turned and started heading back to their van.

"Gibbs… Do you really think that he's the murderer?" asked Ziva, looking down at the body in her hands. She didn't get an answer, just a brief glare before Gibbs carried on walking and Tony and McGee started to help her with the kid.

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**Please Review!**


	2. I don't think I'm in Amestris anymore

**AN: I want to thank every one who faved and reviewed to this story. I did wish for a few more reviews, but beggars cant be choosers, right? There is know a poll to decide if any other characters should come into the story, so please vote on who you want. Also, please note that this is set in the FMA manga, but you still should get it even if you dodn't read it. Any way, hears the next part. Hope you like it.**

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Pain. A dull pain across the back of his left shoulder and neck. In fact, it wasn't just there. His whole body felt completely sore drained of energy, like he had just woken up the day after a marathon. That was the first thing that Edward was aware of when he woke up. That, and the fact that wherever he was, he was moving. Most probably in a car or a train, judging on the movement. Slowly, he was able to open his heavy eyes. His vision was blurred, but he was able to make a few things out. Firstly, he was in what seemed to be the back of a van. Secondly, he was laid on the floor of said van. Thirdly, for some reason, his arm and ribs were fixed, which he had no idea how that was even possible. And finely, there was someone sat opposite him. His vision was too bad to make out the fetchers, but it looked like a women. He closed his eyes again, his head was killing him with a throbbing headache, and the dizziness and the overpowering smell of iron wasn't really helping him.

'_What the heck happened?'_ he thought. The last thing that he could remember was working out how to get out of Gluttony's stomach. He had just activated the transmutation circle and… _'Oh no. Did something go wrong!? What happened to Ling? And Envy? Though I'm not really that bothered about him. Did we get back? What the heck happened!?!?'_ He couldn't stop the wave of nauseating panic coming over him, nor his stomach doing a flip out of worry, not just for Ling, or for were he was, but about Alphonse.

He gave out a heavy sigh. _'Okay, its no use getting all worked up and worried. Whoever these people are, I can take them if I have to, right? I still wish I knew who they are though, and why they tied me up and kidnapped me!'_

Suddenly, the more resent memories came rushing back to him. A group of people had yelled something at him and then chased him. Then they pinned him the ground and knocked his down. He tried moving his arms. Yeah, they had restrained him. _'Great. Just great! Who are these people?'_

Suddenly, the van stopped. His eyes shot open. The vision of his eyes was much better then before. He was right, it was a girl in front of him. She had long, curly dark brown hair in a ponytail, and dark hazel eyes that were sharp and focused. On both her cap and her jacket were printed the letters 'N C I S'. Ed couldn't help but wonder what on earth that meant. She suddenly stood up, grabbed his left shoulder and hauled him up to his feet with little regard to his comfort. The back doors of the van were suddenly flung open, allowing a bright light to hit Edward, making him scrunch his eyes up for a second before opening them again. Stood outside the van were three other people, all of them were men. One had silver hair and a very strict, somewhat scary look to him. Another had brown hair and bright green eyes. It suddenly hit him that he had kicked him in the stomach before. _'I'd better stay away from him if I can help it!'_ The younger of the three was slightly rounder then the others, but not by much. He also had brown hair and soft eyes, and he didn't look nearly as threatening as the others. They all had the same letter printed on their hats and jackets.

"Move," ordered the women sharply, not letting her iron grip weaken on his jacket. Edward couldn't help but notice that she had a bit of a strange accent. He knew a lot better then to say 'no' to a girl like her, from personal experience. He followed her lead and exited the van, before being shoved in the elevator and followed by the other people. He had never been in one himself because they often broke down at headquarters and were very unreliable. As it began to move up, they started to talk to each other.

"What happened to Ducky?" asked the green-eyed man to the man with silver hair.

'_Ducky? Is he worried about a duck or something?'_

"He and Palmer managed to get the body out of there. She's in autopsy now." He answered, and Ed could have sworn that he shot a glare towards him. What had he done to tick them of so much?

The elevator suddenly stopped, made a little 'bing' noise, and the door opened up. He was absolutely amazed by the room they came into. It was a somewhat quite office, (probably because it was pretty late by this point,) which somehow reminded him of Headquarters. But it was far part that. There was so much amazing… whatever they were. The all look strange boxes with flashing screens. That first he thought that they might just be for show or something, but then he noticed that people were looking at with great intent and interest. They were also moving strange things around next to the boxes, but he wasn't sure why. But one thing that he was sure about was that he was probably a long way from home.

"Keep going," ordered the women again. Ed snapped back to reality, not realising that he had spaced out. He allowed the girl to carry on pushing him in the directing she wanted, which right now was down a corridor with lodes of door along the sides. She suddenly stopped outside one of the doors and the younger man opened it to them. Edward was then shoved into the small room, which only had a metal table, two plastic stairs on either side of it and a long mirror on the wall. The women suddenly let go of him before the shut the door behind them. He heard a sharp 'click' behind them. He was now locked in a small room by himself and still had no idea who these people were or where he was.

'_Well if that isn't the filling in the great old sandwich that is my day! What I'm I supposed to do now?'_ A lot of options started to come to his mind. First of all, he could always fight his was out. He had a good hunch that he would be able to fight them if he had to. At least, he could for the men. As for the women… he wasn't so sure. She sort of reminded him of a cross between Teacher and Lt. Hawkeye, a very scary combination. Then he thought that if he talked to them, then they might let him go. But then again, when people usually chase, attack and kidnap you, they're not usually that friendly, and from what he'd seen of them, he guessed they weren't the nicest of people. So he was left with the last option. Say nothing. Maybe then there would be a chance of getting out. All right, that my not make much sense out loud, but he thought that if he didn't give them any information that they might want, they would let their guard down he could either run or fight. Giving a deep sigh, he flopped down on the chair opposite the large mirror. He was so tiered and hungry that he couldn't really think that well. Looking onto the mirror he suddenly became aware that he was still coated in blood. He shivered in disgust. The sooner he could get that stuff of, the better.

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"So, what's Gibbs going to do?" asked Ziva, who had been watching the blond through the two-way mirror for about 20 minuets. He had been able to shift his cuffed hands to his front by tucking then under his legs so that he could use his arms as a pillow for hid head. He did seem to be genuinely drowsy.

"He's letting him sit," answered Tony, who was still a little week from the kick he got a little while ago. It felt a lot worse then it should have. "So what do you think, Zee-Vah? You think that we got our guy?"

"I'm not sure… there's something different about him. Something that I can't quite put my toe on." She said, squinting her eyes slightly, as if she was trying to see something else.

"Finger, Ziva, its finger. And how so?"

"Well, if I knew then I wouldn't say that I couldn't but my to… finger on it, would I?" she snapped slightly. She wasn't the only one who was grouchy. They hadn't had much sleep lately and had worked their fingers to the bone trying to scrap together any evidence they could, and so far had barely anything, and now they caught there only suspect. Though if they had to be honest, they all thought it was the kid. Whether it was due to the fact that they were tired of searching for something they knew they might not be able to find, or that he was coated in blood or anything else they weren't sure, but they still strongly suspected him.

"Were is McGee anyway?" she asked, trying to change the subject.

"Down in Abby's lab. She's going to have to come and collect he evidence from him later. She's really happy that we finely found a suspect."

Suddenly the door opened and Abby practically leaped in, like she sometimes did when she panicked. "Hey, guys! You okay? Timmy said that you got hurt Tony, are you all right? Did you catch the guy? Did you?" she asked, rambling like she often did.

"Abby! Abby, its okay, just calm down!" said Tony, putting his hands on her shoulders, trying to settle her. "Were fine. We caught… someone."

Abby gave a confused look and turned her head towards the two-way mirror. She was very surprised to see a sleepy teenager sitting in the interrogation room. But it turned into a frown. "Gibbs is letting him sit! Why? He's a murderer!" she wined, obviously annoyed at him. "Were is Gibbs anyway? I have to tell him something."

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As soon as Gibbs walked into the interrogation, the kid quickly sat back up from leaning on the metal table, pretending that he hadn't just been falling asleep. He started to very slowly walk behind him until he was leaning against the wall, looking at his reflection on the mirror. At first he was starring to star him out, but the kid simply glared back at him, his golden eyes glistening somewhat angrily. After 5 minutes of absolute silence, he realised that he wasn't going to get anywhere with that approach, and decided to do things a little differently. He moved again, this time sitting opposite him before he started to talk.

"You've really gotten yourself in some trouble, kid," he started, his voice quite and deadly serious. "I've got to admit it though, you had us running in circles all month. But what I want to know is what your name is and why you did it."

Even though the kid's expression didn't change, his eyes defiantly showed some confusion.

"What… did they annoy you? Did you even know them? Did you get a kick out of it? Do you think its some kind of a game? Did you have something against their husbands? Did you just wanted to know what it felt like? Do you just plain enjoy it?" Gibbs kept his voice calm through out the whole thing. True, they had no forensic evidences to link him to the murders yet, but if he could catch him out they wouldn't really need to.

This time his expression did change, raising one eyebrow in complete confusion. He had to hand it to the kid, if he was faking; he was a pretty good actor. But he still didn't say a word, which was irritating Gibbs further.

"Okay, I'm going to break this down nice and simple for you," Gibbs growled, leaning forward with a dangerous look in his eyes. "You're going to tell us how you did it, why you did and who you are before I do something that I might regret when we take your ass to court! We found you near the body of the latest victim, you ran from and attacked a federal agent and your covered in blood, so don't even try to deny the fact that you've killed those three women in the past month!" by this point he was shouting in complete rage.

As he was saying all of this, he got a slide show of the teenager's emotions. First was complete confusion. Then his face paled behind the dried bloodstains, and his eyes widened. Finely, his mouth turned into a snarl, his face reddening in anger, his golden eyes burning. He suddenly exploded. He stood straight up, sending his chair crashing to the ground, so that he was looming over the older man.

"YOU THINK I WHAT!?!?"

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**AN: Remember, the more reviews you post, the faster I'll post.**


	3. Blood Samples

**I want to thank all of you who were kind enough to review and a special thank you to 'Unleash The Shadow' for giving me some ideas that I very much needed.**

**I would very much appreciate it if you could all give me some ideas of how everyone could find out about his auto mail, because I'm a little bit stuck on that bit. Remember, I am open to any and all ideas you want to put forward and I might use them, because this isn't just my fanfiction, its your fanfiction. Thank you again, and enjoy!**

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"YOU THINK I WHAT!?!?" Edwards screamed, his entire body shacking with rage. He suddenly heard the door opening again. Whipping his head around he saw the women and green eyed man from before standing at the doorway, both holding guns in their hands, obviously worried that he would go mad and attack the guy. Gulping slightly and his shacking settling down, he slowly sat back down, glaring at the older man in front of him.

"Look, I could never kill anyone! I'll admit it, I don't have the nerve to do it, and I'm not strong enough for it. True that I've done some bad things in my past that I'm not proud of, but I am not a murderer!" he said, trying to control his anger and talk calmly, though it was difficult for him. What right did this man have accusing him of something like that? He hated to admit it, but it was true, he couldn't kill anyone, he just… couldn't.

The man simply raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, well we'll find out just how much of that is true soon enough," he said plainly, before he got up and made is way to the door.

"What's yours?" Ed asked, just before the man walked out the room. He turned around to face him again.

"What?"

"Your name. You asked me mine, I think I should ask you yours."

"… Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, NCIS."

Ed couldn't help the small snicker escape his mouth before he clamped his hands over his mouth, the man, 'Gibbs', glaring at him.

"Sorry, sorry, its just strange. My name is Edward. Edward Elric."

Gibbs merely nodded at the information before he walked out of the room.

"Hey, wait!" called Ed, making Gibbs turn around again.

"Do you think … maybe I could have a shower?" he asked, fidgeting slightly. "Its not exactly comfortable being covered in blood."

Gibbs didn't answer, just walked out of the room, the other two following him and closing the door, leaving Ed sat by himself yet again.

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"You believe him, boss?" asked Tony, trying to keep up with the fast walking man.

"Not sure yet. I need to go talk to Abby."

"I'm here Gibbs!" she called, running up to him. "Ands I need to talk to you too."

Sighing, Gibbs stopped and turned to Abby. "Okay, you first."

"Well," Abby had a full grin on her face. "While you lot all ran after the kid, Ducky found, wait for it… a murder weapon!"

"You sure it's the weapon used, Abs?"

"Yes… Well, kind of. It was defiantly used to kill this victim; it had all of her blood on it. But it's a very common left handed cleaver knife that you could find at any butchers, so whoever murdered them could have more then one knife. More then one knife means more then one murder weapon. Oh, and you going to love this! I was able to lift some finger prints from the handle of the knife and Tim's running through the system now."

"Good job Abby," grinned Gibbs, giving her a peak on her forehead. "I need you to go collect some evidence from the kid in interrogation. DiNozzo, you go with Abby."

"You don't have to worry about weapons, Gibbs. I patted him down when he was knocked out in the van," said Ziva, who barely got a 'Gibbs stare'.

"Got it boss, I'll go with her," Tony said quickly, before Gibbs could say anything else.

"David, search every butchers for a 40 mile radiuses and give me a list of all the left handed employees. And tell McGee to ring be as soon as he gets a hit." He ordered, getting into the elevator.

"What about you, Gibbs?"

"Autopsy." He said, as the elevator doors shut with him and Ziva inside.

"So, Abs, what do you think? He do it?" asked Tony, walking slowly to the interrogation room with Abby.

"Maybe…"

"Maybe? Just a few minutes ago you were angry that he was allowed to sit."

"Well can you blame me? Let's just get those samples from him and get them tested," she said defensively, as the reached the room.

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This time when the door opened, not only did the man from before walked in, but also another women. She was kind of small, with black hair tied up in pigtails. She wore a long white lab coat, a black top, a pleated skirt and large black boots. She also had a lot of jewellery on and he could see a few tattoos as well.

"Are you going to accuse me of things I didn't do as well?" Ed asked, still sort of angry about what had just happened.

"Relax, Kid, we just need to get some evidence samples from you," said the man, sitting down on the other chair.

"Evidence samples? What are those?"

The girl looked that him like he was insane. "You don't know what evidence samples are!?" she half shouted it.

"Erm… no. Should I?"

"There things that you can use to help prove who did something. Like if you find finger prints on something or blood somewhere." She tried to explain.

"Finger prints?"

"Yeah. You see every one has individual fingerprints that are on your fingertips. You've got oil on your hands, so whenever you touch something you leave a print. Because they're all different, you can tell who was there. Bloods kind of the same to because it has DNA in it"

"So… you want mine to see if I touched some thing, right?" Ed tried. It did seam like a good theory, and him being a scientist he could easily see it working.

"You got it," she said. "We only need one of your finger prints to figure out if you touched it. So…" she placed a piece of paper and an ink pad on the table, "Just put some ink on your index finger, let me tack a swab so we have your DNA and that's it. I also need some of that… blood you've got on you to see if it belongs to anyone."

"Er…a little help, please," he asked, holing up his cuffed hand.

"Tony? If you could," she asked the man.

"Fine, but if the kid attacks me a gain, so help me I'll shoot him," Tony sighed, unlocking the handcuffs.

"I told you my name is Ed, not kid!" Ed said defensively, tacking of his left glove and coving his fingertip in ink before pressing in hard in the piece of paper, as the girl used a swab to collect some of the blood on his face. "What's your name anyway?"

"Abby. Now open wide," she commended, shoving another swab in his mouth and running it around the inside of his cheek before puling it back out.

"There. Now all I need is a little sample of your blood and were done," she said happily, pulling out a needle.

"Wa…what?" Ed could feel the blood rushing from his face.

"Your blood sample," she repeated, reaching out for his arm.

"NO WAY!" Ed yelled, pulling away from her. She blinked, confused.

"You've given use the other samples, why not this one?" she asked, frowning slightly.

"BECAUSE, THAT'S WHY! There is no way your going to stab me with that huge needle!!" he shouted, standing up and backing away from her.

"What, scared of a little needle?" asked Tony, smirking at his childishness.

"That is not 'little'!" he shot back, pointing at the inch long needle in her hand.

"Oh, don't be sure a baby, Ed! Get over here!" said Abby, walking towards him again.

"No way!"

"It's not going to hurt, it's just a little prod!"

"Liar!"

"Just get over here!"

"So you can drain me? No thank you!"

"Oh, for the love of Gibbs!" Tony finely snapped, snatching Abby's syringe, grabbing Ed's shoulder and plunging it through his sleeve and into his left arm.

"OW!!! What was that for!?" he yelled at Tony, who had quickly pulled out the needle after getting enough blood.

"Consider it pay back for kicking me earlier!" grinned Tony, as Ed rubbed his sore arm.

"Are you done now?" he pouted, a lot like a little kid.

"Yep. Right Abs?"

"Yeah. Now we can see if you touched it or not," she said, narrowing her eyes at him a little bit.

"Good, now can I please get washed? The smell of blood is making me feel sick," he wined. The small of iron really was making him feel dizzy, and plus it might wake him up a little bit too. I'd need to get some food as well soon, or else his stomach would definitely we complaining.

Tony sighed. "Yeah, I guess. But I'm standing outside the door so you don't run of. See you later Abs!"

"See ya!" she called, running down the stairs as Tony gripped hold of Ed and lead him towards the showers that they used for decontamination.

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**AN: Sorry Its a bit short, but I'll try to do more later! Please Review! Please Review! Please Review!**


	4. Guilty or Innocent?

**AN: Sorry it's a little later then the others, but it's a bit longer this time. I want to thank all of you who reviewed, especially the ones who gave me some ideas, bust I'm still all ears for any others. And please remember that I've got a poll open for this fanfiction, so please vote. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this one!**

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With Tony stood outside of the door waiting for him, Edward sighed happily as the cool water rained down on him from the small shower cubical. The running water trickling down his body, his thoughts started to become clearer. _'I want out of here! I don't trust these guys. I know they haven't actually done anything… you know; besides accuse me of murder! But I just don't like it here. All those weird machines, fingerprints, and blood samples… mind you, I'm happy they didn't do it to my right arm. It's bad enough that I have automail, but it's harder to be the only one who has it. So far, no one I've seen has it and I can always tell if they do, it's the noise it makes. I wonder if they even have it here… wherever here is. I guess I'd better not say anything about it if I can help it.'_

He twisted the tap of the shower, turning the now warm water of. It was a relief to finely get all of the blood out of his hair and automail. Drying him self of with the towel, he realised that his clothes were still bloody.

"Hey, Tony? What I'm I going to do about… you know… my clothes?" Ed called, rapping the towel around if waist, not sure what he should do.

"Spear ones on the counter. Put some on," he called back from behind the door. He could tell that Ed had a bad temper and thought it better if he wasn't in the room when he was showering. Edward quickly found to plain spare clothes, which for some reason were orange, and shoved them on quickly. He guessed that they were spare prison cloths or something like that. Thankfully they had long sleeves so he could keep his automail covered. As he was getting dressed, he started to talk to Tony.

"So, what do those letters mean anyway?" he asked.

"NCIS? It means Naval Criminal Investigative Service. We investigate crimes to do with the navy. We're a U.S. government agency."

"So, you work for the military?" Ed tried. He had no idea what the 'U.S.' was, but he guessed it was a county or something like that.

"I guess so."

"So, that's why you won't let me go?"

"Yeah, we need to prove if your involved or not."

"Sorry I'm not much help. I can't really remember anything before I woke up." It wasn't a complete lie. He couldn't quite remember everything and had no idea how he even got there.

"Anything you can remember?" he asked encouragingly.

"Well… I was running, and I got into a bit of a fight. My friend was there with me. I was going to meet up with my little brother, but I don't think I did," he said. That was true. He was trying to runaway from Envy and tied to fight him of with Ling, and he was trying to get back to Alphonse when he wound up there.

He shoved his blood stained white gloves under the tap, washing of most of the blood, though there was still a few marks left, and ringed them out before putting them back on his hands. They might have been a bit damp but he needed them. He grabbed his old clothes and headed out of the door.

"About time! You take as long as a girl dose," said Tony, before looking at him long, dripping hair which he had forgotten to tie back up and grinning. "But then again, you do have the hair of one."

"What's that suppose to mean!?" snapped Ed, blushing slightly as Tony took his clothes from him and begin walking back to the interrogation room together.

"Oh nothing. Its just that you're a teenaged guy with hair longer then a lot of girls that I've met," smirked Tony, enjoying teasing him. "You catch my drift, squirt?

"HOW ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL THAT HE CAN DROWN IN A PUDDLE!?!?" Ed yelled angrily, making Tony back up slightly, but his smile never leaving his face.

"DiNozzo!"

DiNozzo jumped when he heard Gibbs yelling at him, walking towards them.

"Well, be seeing you Tony," smiled Ed, slipping back into the interrogation room, which they had just reached. "I think it's safer for me to stay in here."

"Let me come too!" Tony pleaded, not liking the look in his boss's eyes.

"No way!" grinned Ed before he shut the door, leaving Tony alone in the corridor to face an angry Gibbs along.

"Er, hey Boss."

"What the hell are you thinking, DiNozzo?" growled Gibbs, slapping Tony on the back of the head.

"Ow! I don't know what you mean, Boss!" he said honestly.

"Really? You don't think that escorting the prime suspect to a serial homicide, not to mention that he attacked you before and went berserk just now, unescorted and unarmed to get cleaned up, possibly tampering evidence, without his even being in handcuffs?!" snapped Gibbs, who's face was now inches way from Tony's.

"Erm, er, well… you see, the thing is that…" he tried, but could see no way out of it, especially with Gibbs glaring at him like that. "Sorry, Boss! Won't happen again!"

"You bet it won't!" he growled, slapping him again before Tony quickly dashing of to Abby's lab sheepish.

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"Hey, Tony! You okay?" asked Abby from her machines, as soon as Tony walked into her lab.

"Could be better. I got you personal effects, just like you asked. You got anything yet?" he said, passing her Ed's bloodstained clothes.

"Not yet, and I have a bone to pick with you, DiNozzo!" said Abby, pointing at Tony and walking over to him. "What ere you thinking, just stabbing him with a needle! You have to find a vein before you do it; you can't just stab it in his arm without looking were your sticking it! Your lucky you actually got any out at all!"

"But… I did get some out, right?"

"Because of a bizarre struck of luck," explained Tim, who was sat on one of the computers.

"I don't believe in luck, McGeek! I knew exactly were to up that needle," lied Tony. "So, have you found anything yet? Cos Gibbs is getting-"

He was cut of by a beeping noise coming from one of Abby's machines. "My baby's calling!" smiled Abby happily, as she dashed over to one of the screens. "That's… weird…" she said, scanning the screen with her eyes, raising one eyebrow.

"What is?" asked Tony and McGee at the same time.

"Well, it's just that… it's weird… but good. Very good. Great even!"

"What is!?" they asked again.

"Yeah, what is?"

The three of them turned around to find Gibbs walking in, holding a large Caf-Pow! in his hand, followed by Ziva.

"Hiya, Gibbs, thanks!" she smiled, grabbing the drink and taking a long sip. "Mmm, blueberry!"

"So, what have you got for us Abs?"

"You two first."

"Well, I managed to get a list of left handed butchers in 50 miles, which is 5 men" started Ziva before she sighed. "However, non of the shops owned that brand of clever knife. I think it might have been hand made by someone."

"That sucks!" wined Abby. "How about you, Gibbs?"

"Ducky noticed some bruises around the victims wrist, so she was tied up when it happened. That and someone hit her on the back of her head first to knock her out." Said Gibbs. "Now come on, Abby, what about you?"

"Still haven gotten a hit on the print's yet, Boss. But they're definitely not the kids," said Tim, who was sat by the computer.

"You are going to love this, Gibbs! Okay, I was running the blood that all over him, and it is not the girls. It's not even human! Okay, here it is, it was a mixture of pig, cow, lamb, rabbit and chicken blood. There's even a bit dog in there too," she said excitedly, a large grin on her face.

"So?" asked Gibbs.

Abby sighed. "Okay, let's try it this way. Take it away, McGee!"

"Well… er, when we found the girl, she looked like this," he put up a picture that had been taken at the crime scene. "From the largeness and deepness of all the cuts, there should be a lot more blood then there was. So, I looked into it a bit, and it turned out that there was a huge, freak storm, at 7:45pm that lasted for only 2 minutes before it cleared as soon as it started."

"So?" everyone asked Gibbs, Tony and Ziva at the exact same time. Abby and Tim sighed.

"So, Ed was caked with blood, more then the women was! So he must have been there way after the murder! You know what that means?" said Abby.

"That… he might not have done it?" tried Tony, not sure what they were getting at.

"Yes! But that's not just it. Don't you think it's a little strange that he was unconscious on the ground, covered in animal blood, near a dead body? It looks to me like he was framed."

"She has a point, Gibbs," agreed Ziva.

"And he said that he cant really remember anything before he woke up," added Tony.

"People lie, DiNozzo," said Gibbs. "What about his blood, Abs. And sign of drugs or anything?"

"Gibbs, I am just one tiny, little women with a lot of evidence to get through. I'll get it done as soon as I can," she told him, tacking another gulp of her drink. "Why, you still think he did it?"

"Just tell me if you get anything else," he told Abby, before heading back upstairs. He sat at him desk for quite a while, thinking. It wasn't that he actually thought that Edward might have killed someone, he didn't look the kind that had the stomach for it and the evidence was completely against him. It was just… well he didn't know what it was; he just didn't trust him that was all. There was something that the kid was hiding, something big. His gut was telling him. It was driving him crazy. It might just be because the case had been getting to him, or he was sleep deprived, but whatever it was, it was making him come down on the kid like a bag of bricks. He was going to find out what it was, one way or another. Gibbs looked over at the clock. It was 1am. _'Guess I should head back. Everyone probably already has.'_

"Special agent Gibbs. A word please."

Gibbs looked up. Director Jenny Shepard was stood in front of his desk.

"Sure, go ahead." He said, grabbing his coat.

"Abby has just filled me in on the case. I want Ed to be but under protection until this whole thing is finished, since he is a potential witness. I want him to stay with you for a while."

Gibbs almost dropped his coat in shock. "What!? No, why me?"

"Because, Gibbs, he has to stay with someone. You're the best for the job and it won't be for too long. Do you have something against him or something?"

"W-well no, bust I still don't know why I have to. What about Abby… or DiNozzo?"

"Abby's landlord won't allow animals or children in the building, and I wouldn't let Tony look after a goldfish, let alone another human being! Someone Gibbs. He needs somewhere to stay the night. Please."

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**An: Please Review!**


	5. Breakfast and clothes

**AN: Sorry it's taken a while to post but I've been having major writers block lately. I would really appreciate any help that anyone is willing to give. Seriously, any thing you want to be put in the story, you tell me and I'll see what I can do. Okay, enjoy!**

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When Gibbs walked into the interrogation room, he found the blond teenager resting his head on his arms, his hair tied back in a braid again, starting to fall asleep. He couldn't help but smile slightly.

"Come on kid, up," he said, shacking Ed's shoulder. Ed opened one heavy eye and looked up at him tiredly.

"Mm'a ooo wa…?" he mumbled.

"Your staying with me for the night, so get up," he said, trying to pull him up by his arm.

"Buuu… io wwaan heep…" he mumbled, rubbing his eyes with his fist before yawning. He looked back up at Gibbs and sighed. "Fine," he stood up slowly, trying to avoid a head rush, but Gibbs just grabbed his arm and pulled him up quickly, before Ed snatched his arm back quickly, scowling. _'He's most definitely a teenager!'_

The whole car ride to his house was spent in complete silence, besides the low rumble of the cars engine. _'Why did I let Jenny talk me into this? Kids, I can deal with, but teenagers? I don't have that much patients! We'll end up in a huge fight or something, and not just a shouting one! I remember what I was like at him age and it was not a pretty picture. I swear, if I end up getting a call from the police while stuck with him, I'm seriously going to end up killing him!'_

"Hey, are you even listening to me?" yelled Ed, making Gibbs snap out of his thoughts. He had been trying to get the older mans attention for the past three minutes!

"No, I wasn't," he answered bluntly.

Ed glared at him angrily. "I said, are you sure you don't mind me staying with you?"

"Well, its not as if I have a choice in the matter. Director Shepard would tear me a new one if I sent you back now."

"Director Shepard? Really? She seemed nice when I met her."

"You've met her?"

"Yep. She came to see me before you came in. She told me that because I wasn't a suspect for your murder any more, and that I was a possible witness, I had to stay with someone for a while and if it was okay with my parents."

"Was it?" As soon as Gibbs asked, Ed's body stiffen slightly, and he way in his reflection of the window that his eyes widening slightly before he frowned.

"If it wasn't, do you think I'd be here right now?" he said somewhat bitterly. Thankfully by then, they had reached Gibbs' house, so he decided to drop the subject.

"Come on, I'm starving," he said, turning of the engine and walking into his house, Ed following him. He never did lock the door encase one of the teem needed some help, a place to stay or just wanted to talk. Besides, there wasn't really any valuable for someone to steel, and he doubted that anyone would have the nerve to try and rob him.

"Just wait in the living room for a second." He told him, pointing the way. Ed went in and flopped lazily on the sofa while Gibbs went into the kitchen. He opened the fringe door, looking inside to see if there was anything to eat. Inside, there was half a cucumber, one full carton of milk, two eggs and an old packet of what looked like meat, but he wasn't quite sure. _'Guess this means takeout.'_

"Hey, kid, what do you want? Indian, pizza or ch…" he called walking into the living room but never finished his sentence. Edward was laid on his side, his right arm and leg dangling from the sofa. His eyes were closed and his breathing was slow and steady. It took him a few seconds to realise that he must have fallen asleep. It was only then did he actually notice that large bags under his eyes, making him wonder when he had lasts slept. Ed looked so peaceful when he wasn't awake, like a little kid. Gibbs suddenly started to get flashbacks of Kelly. She usually fell asleep like that if she had been watching a movie late at night, or had been reading for to long. She always woke up with a stiff neck the morning after and sometimes even a cold if she slept with her stomach out, like Ed was doing. Gibbs suddenly felt a wave of parental instincts come over him. Sighing, Gibbs pulled a spear blanket that he had out of the linen closet and laid it over Ed.

'_I'm just doing it so I wont have to deal with a sick teenager, that's all.'_ He told himself, before he started to heed upstairs to his room. _'I can wait till tomorrow morning to eat.'_

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Ed woke up with a start, at a loud banging noise. For a second he had no idea were he was, but then the recent memories came over him, reminding him of what happened. He sighed heavily, wishing that it was all a dream, and that he was back with Alphonse and not in a strange place that he knew nothing about. The loud banging came again, and he realised that the sound was coming from underneath him. He looked over at a clock that was hung up on the wall to see that it was 8oclock. When he sat up, the blanket around hi tumbled to the floor. _'Huh? When did this get here?'_ Suddenly he heard the loud banging again. Curiosity getting the better of him, he decided to find out what was making such a loud noise so early in the morning. Following the noise, it lead him to the basement.

Walking quietly down the steps to the basement, he saw Gibbs hammering wooden pegs into what looked like the beginnings of a large wooden boat that filled the entire room. "What are you doing!?"

Gibbs looked up towards Ed, who carried on moving down the stairs until he was stood on the floor. "Hammering wooden pegs into a boat I'm making."

"Yes, I see that, but… oh forget it," sighed Ed, still to drowsy to at try and argue with the older man. He looked over at a workbench, which had hand tools scattered all over the top. "You know, there are easier ways of getting it done."

"I don't depend on electricity to get the job done. Besides, I prefer to use my hands for working with wood," he explained, continuing to hammer.

"You sound just like Teacher," Ed mumbled, rubbing his eyes. _'Except with alchemy instead of electricity.'_

"Smart man."

"Women," Ed corrected. "And yeah, she is. Not to mention one hell of a fighter. And I got scars to prove it!"

Gibbs wasn't sure if he was serious or not. Suddenly a loud growling noise came from Ed's stomach, making the teenager blush a little bit. "You hungry? Come on, I think I've got some eggs for breakfast."

Ed sat quietly at the kitchen table as Gibbs scrabbled the two eggs he had. Looking down at himself, he couldn't help but wonder if he would ever get his clothes back again, or at least his pocket watch, which was the main thing he needed. "Here you go," he said, pushing a plate of scrambled eggs before sitting down opposite him with his own plate of food. Ed shoved about half of the eggs into his mouth, before he stopped and played with it for a while, prodding them with his fork.

"Something wrong?" asked Gibbs.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead."

"How come your old but still single?" he asked bluntly, making Gibbs chock slightly on his food.

"Excuse me?!"

"Well, no ones living with you, you haven't said anything about a girlfriend or a wife and ever since I've been here I haven't seen any photos of any," he explained, a slight smirk on her face. "What, you no good with women or something?"

"Hey, I've been married four times," he said defensively, to which Ed clapped his hands slowly with a blank look of his face and said, "Congratulations, you just proven my point."

"Just shut up and eat, wise ass. I'll be back in a second," Gibbs told him, before putting his empty plate in the kitchen sink and heading stairs, leaving Ed sat alone at the table as he shoved the rest of his breakfast into his mouth. Gibbs returned after a few minutes, holding a shopping bag full of something and placing it on the table. "Jenny got them before you came here. She had to guess your size, but they look like they'll fit."

Curiosity getting the better of him, Ed looked inside the bag and pulled out the contents. Inside, there was a black t-shirt, a soft, red hoodie, baggy cargo pants with lodes of pockets running up both legs, and white trainers. Ed was completely lost for words. The only thing he could do for a while was simply look at the clothes. When he did talk, the only thing he could say was, "How much did all this cost?"

Gibbs smirked in amusement by the teenager's question. "I don't know, but I would thank her when you next see her. Which by the way is soon, because I have to be at work soon. So hurry up and get dressed. There's a bathroom upstairs were you can wash up. Hurry it up," he instructed the blond, pointing the way to the stairs.

Ed walked down the stair after getting dressed in his new clothes, but still wearing his gloves. They felt and looked kind of strange to him, but for some reason, he really liked them. "Kay, I'm ready to go," he told Gibbs, who was standing in the hallway near the front door.

That day at NCIS was anything but normal thanks the Ed. At first, it was extremely awkward. It was almost like being the new kid in school during the middle of the semester. Hat is, the new kid in a school that all thought that you had committed murder less then 24 hours ago! But never the less, Gibbs was determined not to leave Ed at his house alone. He wasn't about to let a teenager that he didn't even know that well alone in his house.

As soon as the two entered the bullpen, they immediately got funny looks from everyone on that floor. Ziva, who was the only one of Gibbs' team who was there, shifted her eyes from Edward to Gibbs. This repeated a few times, making Ed slightly nervous, before she finely said something. "Gibbs… what is he doing up here?"

"Blame the Director. She thinks he's a possible witness and I'm stuck with him until we solve this case. Jet another reason to find this guy," he said, sitting down at his desk. Ziva looked back up at Ed, who was now stood in between hers and Tony's desk. He grinned and gave her a small wave, trying to brake the ice.

"So… erm, what's your name?" he asked, trying to make conversation.

"Ziva. Ziva David," she answered, though she was still looking him up and down, making him feel more uncomfortable._ 'This is going to be a long day…'_

**AN: PleaseReviewPleaseReviewPleaseReviewPleaseReviewPleaseReviewPleaseReviewPleaseReviewPleaseReviewPleaseReviewPleaseReviewPleaseReviewPleaseReviewPleaseReviewPleaseReviewPleaseReview!**

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	6. 10 dollars

_AN: I know, I'm a horrible person! I should have updated this story ages ago, I'm really sorry :( And I'm sorry that this one's kinda short, but I've been have a huge wrighter block._

**Okay guys, this is your chance to get in on the making of this storie. My wrighters block has been growing and I don't think it's going anytime soon, so please please please, I need your help!!! I need every one of you who wants this story to continue to give me something, anything, any idea that I can put in this story. I don't care if its just one line, a paragraph or huge plot twists, just please help me out, please! *Huge puppy dog eyes.***

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"Er… Boss, what's he doing up here?" asked Tony, pointing towards Edward as he and McGee walked into the bullpen. Ed couldn't help but smirk at their confused faces, and by Tim, who's mouth kept on opening and shutting like a fish.

"Director thinks he's a possible witness so we're stuck with him till this thing is over and done with. I need coffee," Gibbs grumbled, before standing up and heading towards the elevator, leaving three professional field agents with one bad tempered teenager. Ed noticed that they were all looking a little uncomfortably at him.

"I'm not going to bit, you know," he sighed, crossing his arms across his chest.

"Yeah, well, it's not really your teeth that I'm worried about!" smirked Tony, sitting down at his desk. Tim skimmed past Ed to get to his desk, almost as if he was too scared touch him.

"Who are you again?" asked Ed, a bit insulted by the man. It wasn't as if he had the plague or something.

"Erm… I-I'm Agent McGee," he stuttered slightly.

"He also answers to McGeek, Probie and Elf Lord," smiled Tony, getting a glare from Tim.

"You know, you could try being a little bit more mature, DiNozzo," suggested Ziva.

"And what's the fun in that, Zee-Vah?"

"You'll find something, Tony. You always do."

"Was that supposed to be a swing, McSmartmouth. Cos you missed!"

"Erm… Guys?"

"Would you just act your age every now and again?"

"Oh, please! I'll act my age when you do."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"…Guys?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe the fact that you play a fairy on an online game?"

"It's a snow elf and you know it!"

"And that's supposed to make it better?"

"Guys!"

"What?!" they snapped at the same time, looking over at Ziva.

"Where did Elric go?" she asked, pointing over to the empty space were Ed once stood.

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Edward quickly walked down the stairs, wanting to have a look around. He wasn't sure what it was, but he felt like a little kid in a sweet store. Everything seemed new and interesting around here, and he wanted to see what else there was. When he reached the next floor down, he immediately spotted a door that had the word 'Lab' on it. Looking around, he saw that no one was around. _'Just a look wouldn't hurt'_

As soon as he stepped into that room, a large grin began to grow on his face and he started to walk around. It looked so amazing, so much more advanced then he'd ever seen before. There must have been a dozen strange new machines dotted around, along with a few of those strange screen things that he saw upstairs. On the walls hung pictures of what looked like different substance that have been magnified a thousand times. They looked rather beautiful in there own way, and Ed enjoyed trying to work out what they were.

"What are you doing here!" shouted a voice from behind him, making him jump in shock and turn around. Stood there was that girl that he met before, Abby.

"You scared me to death!" he accused, placing his hand on his chest, feeling his heart pumping quickly. "Do you always do that to people?"

"Only when they're in my lab when I don't know about it," she said, her eyes squinting slightly, placing her hand on her hips. Ed was quick to realise that she could be very scary at times.

"I'm sorry," he apologised, now calm. "This is really your lab?"

"Yeah, pretty cool, huh?" she said, no longer glaring but smiling at him. He also realised that she could switch moods pretty quickly.

"Defiantly," he agreed, before pointing up the picture that he was just looking at. "This is some sort of disease right, I'm guessing something along the lines of the plague?"

Abby blinked a few times in surprise. _'Smart kid'_ "Yeah… your right. Though technically it's a genetically altered one, so it's immune to antibiotics."

"Why would someone do that?"

"Its kind of a long story, but lest just say, Tony caught this thing," Abby shivered slightly, remembering Tony lied on the bed, coughing all the time. Ed noticed her reaction and thought it better not to ask any more.

"So, you know about my current situation, right?" he asked, trying to change the subject.

"Yeah, the director told me the other night. Oh, that reminds me," she went to one of the draw inside a small cabinet. She pulled out a long, silver chain, with a pocket watch on the end of it. "We still need your clothes, but you can have this back. I got to say, I really love it. The design is amazing, with the dragon and the six sided star!"

She handed it to Ed, who gladly took it. He would really need it when he got back home. Suddenly, a wash of guilt and sorrow came over him. He couldn't help but wonder what Al was doing. He would probably be really worried right now. Boy, was he going to get chewed out when he got back! Abby saw Ed go from happy to sad in a matter of seconds.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Ed looked up at her, blinking a few times, before a large grin came on his face. "Yeah, of course I am, Abby. Why wouldn't I be?" he said cheerily, but he had a feeling that he wasn't fooling anyone. Ed saw Abby sucking on the inside of her cheek like she was thinking hard about something, before her hand dug into her pocket and brought out a piece of some sort of green paper and handed it to him.

"Here, take this. I want you to go down the street till you find a Starbucks, and get a Caf-Pow for me, okay? You can get one yourself as well if you want, there really good!"

Ed looked closely at the paper. It was now obvious to him that it was money, though he hadn't seen this time of money before. It was had the number 10 written in all corners on both sides, and '10 dollars' written at the bottom. It also had written on it 'The united states of Americas'. Ed guessed that might be the name of the place he was in.

"What's a… Caf-Pow?"

Abby stared at, he mouth wide open, completely in shocked. "You don't know what a Caf-Pow is!? You, my friend, have not lived. It's this drink that you can get then in strawberry, blueberry and orange, but I prefer blueberry. It's full of caffeine; it keeps me going all day."

"Are you sure that's good for you?"

"Probably not. Now, are you going or not?" Ed saw Abby cross her arms over her chest, and knew that there was no way out of it.

"Okay, fine, I'm going!"

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Tony, Ziva and McGee rushed into the autopsy room, suppressing both Ducky and Palmer, who were in the middle of the autopsy on the most resent victim.

"Ducky, Ducky! Have you seen Elric? You know, long blond hair, like, yay high?" asked Tony franticly, gesturing his hand just above his hips.

"Not, Anthony, I'm afraid we haven't. Why do you need to know, I thought he was with you?" asked Ducky, taking of him blood covered latex gloves.

"Well… yes… no… kind of… maybe… okay no, but we didn't loose him, he ran of, Ziva wasn't watching him when she was supposed to-"

"I'm not a babysitter, he wasn't my responsibility."

"Not now! Look, we've got to find him before Gibbs find out that we lost him!" said Tim, running his hand through his hair.

"W-why are you so worried about Gibbs' finds out?"

"Palmer, this is Gibbs' we're talking about. He will kill us, and very painful at that!" snapped Tony, who was worrying more then Ziva and McGee were. He was often the one who got into more trouble about this kind of this, and this was a very big thing.

"And why will I kill you, DiNozzo?"

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_AN: Please help me guys!!!_


	7. Papers

**AN: Im sorry Its been a while, but I fienly got some up. I'm very greatfull to everyone who helped, and I wish that I could do them all, but I cant. Anyway, I'm stull a but stuck, so any help is still apresiated. Enjoy!**

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Edward was at on a bench just outside of Starbucks, with a large Caf-Pow in his hand for Abby. He needed time to think. Ever since he arrived in this weird place, thing just haven't been going him way. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't get Alphonse out of him head. He was probably worried sick. By now, he probably though he was dead! And Ed wasn't sure if he could ever get back. He was in a place that he had never heard about, with strange money he had never seen and very weird machines. The possibility of running away had crossed his mind, but he didn't even know were he was. Remembering Abby telling him that Caf-Pows helped her going all day, the thought that it might help him think more. He took a small sip of the drink, and was surprised to find that it tasted like blueberry juice mixed with a lot of sugar. The bubbled in the drink when in his nose and he felt a slight buzz at the back of his skull.

'_Wow, that's good stuff!'_ he though, feeling a buzz of energy filling his body. The wheels in his head started to tern, summing up all of his options. He knew if he wanted to get back, he would have to tell them where he came from. The problem with that is that Amestris did have a lot of enemy countries. They would most likely think he was a spy and either imprison him or kill him. That idea was out the window pretty quickly. He took another sip. He could try to create the transmutation circle like he did inside Gluttony's stomach, but he didn't have a philosopher's stone, and even if he did, it would probably backfire and kill him. He had a large mouthful of the blue drink. He could always try to find Ling or even Envy in the area were he woke up, but he didn't even know where he was found, and even if he did and he ran into Envy, he would mostly likely beaten within an inch of his like and he wouldn't put it past Envy to actually kill him. Ed sighed heavily and had a few more gulps of the drink. _'So, all of my ideas end up with me getting killed. Great, just great!'_

After a few more minutes of his brain running in circles, he finally gave in. he figured that the best thing he could do, would be to just stay put. Heck, he might even be able to help with their case thing. Plus he owed the Director for the change of clothes and Gibbs for letting him stay at his place, even if it was against his own will. He stood up and was about to head back, but he noticed a man on the sidewalk selling newspapers. Normally, he wouldn't have taken a second glance at him and continued walking by, but something on the paper caught his eye. His golden eyes widened in shock, before quickly scrabbling in his pocket for the change he had previously gotten, witch was made up of lost off silver and copper looking coins in different sizes, and another green piece of paper with the numbers 5 printed on it.

"Is this enough?" asked Ed, shoving his hand near the man, who was slightly taken back. Uncertainly, he plucked a few of the coins out of his hands and gave him a paper. Ed immediately grabbed it and scanned the front cover. He wasn't interested about the headlines, the stories or the pictures; the thing that got his attention was the date. It was 17th August… 2009!?

'_What… the… hell!? How much of that stuff did I drink?'_

The sat down again and started to read the paper, hoping to find more. He found it completely fascinating. There was so much stuff inside it, like a world recession, new diseases, a new president (who seemed to have the most power in the country,) and wars in various places around the world. It sounded sort of like back in Amestris. He read everything, even the horoscopes and sport sections, even though he didn't like those sorts of thing. By the time he was done, his mind was swimming, and not just because of the drinks he took every now and again. Wherever he was, he was in the wrong time line the wrong country, but on top of that, he didn't even think that there was any alchemy. Normally, there was a small story about some state alchemist doing something or other, but there was no mention of it at all.

'_What am I going to do!?!?'_ he thought desperately, swallowing the very last of the Caf-Pow.

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"Well, DiNozzo?"

The whole room filled with a very awkward silence, so quite that you would have heard a pin drop. Gibbs stood there with a coffee in his hand. McGee scratched the back of his head nervously, Ziva averted her eyes to the ground and Ducky and Palmer looked at each other uneasily.

"Erm… er, well, Boss… see the thing is that, er… we sort of…" Tony rambled slightly, trying to phrase the answer in a way that wouldn't put the blame on him. So far, nothing seemed right.

Gibbs slapped him somewhat lightly on the back of the head. "Spit it out, Tony!"

"We were in the bullpen, McGee distracted me, Ziva wasn't watching the kid and then he was gone and now we can't find him," he said very quickly, almost so fast that some people probably wouldn't have been able to keep up with him. Unfortunately for Tony, Gibbs was not one of those people.

"Your telling me, that three highly trained officers couldn't keep track of the only witness on a serial murder case? That you've lost a teenager in a federal agency building? Are you kidding me, DiNozzo, or do you actually want to get fired!?"

"Well, when you put it like that-" Tony didn't finish because of another, much harder, slap upside his head and Gibbs' death stare.

"Find him. Now! Or so help my, I will put you all on desk duty for as long as I can stretch out," growled Gibbs, looking at both Ziva and McGee as well as he spoke.

"On it, Gibbs!" they all said simultaneously, dashing out of autopsy quickly, somewhat relived that his reaction wasn't quite as bad as they had feared.

'_Next time I see that kid, I'm going to have to try really hard not to kill him,' _thought Gibbs darkly, before turning to face Ducky, Palmer had already decided to make himself scarce. "Please tell me you've got something for me Duck."

"Well, not very much, I'm afraid, Jethro. The bruises on the wrists indicate that she was restrained for about a day or so and the angle of them make it seem that she was hung up on something by them, and a lot of her flesh was sliced of with great ease, and due to bones that were cut into, it happened before she died. The cause of death is most likely blood loss. I very painful way to die, I have to say. I need to send some samples up to Abby, but I think that's all I can get."

"Well, at least someone around here is doing their job right. Thanks Duck," Gibbs patted him on the shoulder before heading out the door.

"Try not to be to hard on them, Jethro," he called after his friend, but Gibbs had already gotten into the elevator.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Abby blinked in shock as the three frantic agents burst into her lab all at once, and franticly spread around the room, as if trying to find something.

"Abby, Abby, Abby! Have you seen the kid? Please tell me you have, we've gotta find him! We've looked everywhere, in autopsy, the director office even the bathrooms… Look, please tell us he's here!" said Tim, desperately, grabbing hold of Abby's upper arms and shacking her slightly.

"What? Oh, Ed! Yeah, he was down here. Okay, Timmy, you've got to let me go now, your cutting the blood circulation in my arms!" she said, pushing Tim of her.

"Thank God! Where is he?"

"I sent me out to get a drink for me. He seemed really bored, and then really sad for some reason, so I thought it would take his mind of… what ever it was on. But, now that you mentioned it, he had been gone a while, almost an hour."

"What!?" exclaimed Ziva.

"Okay, that's it, we're dead! We're all dead. Dead men, and woman, walking." Said Tony, his palm making sharp contact with his forehead. "I'll just plan the funerals now. Should we have lilies or roses?"

"Well, lilies are traditional."

Every one shot their head over to the door to find Ed leaning on the doorway, Caf-Pow in his hand and a rolled up newspaper under his armpit, a large grin on his face like he often had.

"Where have you been!?" snapped Ziva, pointing her finger at Ed, who raised one eyebrow at her.

"Relax, I've just been out to get Abby her drink," he told her, as he walked over to Abby and handed it to her. "I can see why you like that stuff, Abs, it tastes really great. Almost as good as those cake things with the marzipan, but of course that's not a drink so it doesn't really count. Okay, batter then hot chocolate. Wait, dose that count? Because it hot and this is cold? But then again, if it wasn't hot then it would just be… chocolate, which is still good, especially in ice-cream!" he rambled, walking around his lab in no general direction.

Every one stared, confused by his random actions. "You drank some, didn't you?" asked Abby.

"No… okay, maybe a little."

"How much is 'a little'?"

"Just… a large drink, but I got you another one. True, I drank a bit of that one too but, its not like you can tell. Okay, maybe you can tell. Abby, you've got to help me! I can't stop talking and moving or anything, I need to do something to do, I've got to focus my mind on something…hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluoride, neon, sodium carbonate, magnesium, silicon…"

"Did he get a brain tumour or something?" Tony muttered to Ziva.

"Okay, Ed, you have to calm down," Abby said very solely and calmly, placing her hands on his shoulders.

"I cant! I have to do something to get ride of all this energy! I have to… I have to… I have to spar with someone! Yeah, that's it?"

"Spar?"

"Yeah, you know fighting? Anybody up for it?" he asked the other, who were all still staring at him like he was insane.

"Okay, I will," said Ziva, before Tony stopped her.

"No way, he doesn't have a death wish!" he told her.

"Your on, Ziva!" Ed said happily. "We'll do it outside, okay?"

"Oh, no," sighed Abby.

"Alright. I've mean meaning to have a match with someone for a while, so I'll probably be a little irony."

"Rusty," corrected Tony. "And I don't think that kicking the kids ass would be a very good idea!"

"Relax, Tony. I can take."

"This is not going to end well," sighed Tim.

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**AN: Please review!**


	8. Let’s get ready to rumble!

**AN: Okay, for starters, I want to apologise to everyone for the delay on this chapter. Especially to I-kill-for-hugs, I'm very sorry for your lost, and I hope you feel better soon. Also, may thanks to dpunk3 for helping me out with his chapter. Anyway, I hope you like!**

* * *

Ed moaned slightly as he opened his heavy eyes to find himself in a very strange place. It was a long white room with a row of long, metal tables, one of which he was laid on. He looked over to one of the tables next to his to find Ziva, Tony, Abby and Tim all sat up on it, looking over at him.

"Hey sleeping beauty!" teased Tony, smirking at Ed.

"How are you feeling?" asked Abby, who looked really worried about him.

"Like a truck just ran over me," he mined, trying to sit up, only to get a shooting pain right at the back of his head. His hand quickly shot back to trying hold the pain down.

"That is the last time I ever drink that stuff."

"It should also be the last time you ever get into a fight with a trained Mossad Officer." Ed looked behind him to see who had just spoken. It was a fairly old man, with grey hair and round glasses. He was wearing blue scrubs and white latexes gloves. Ed also noticed that he had an accent. Different for Ziva's, but defiantly an accent. The man walked up to him and handed him an ice pack.

"Thanks," Ed muttered, still in pain, as he gently placed it on the large bump that had formed on the back of his head and sighed in relief, feeling the cold ice cool down his burning injury. "Who are you?"

"I'm Doctor Donald Mallard, but everyone calls my Ducky. I'm the ME here. It's nice to met you, Edward," he said, offering the teenager his hand. Ed shook it, though not very happy that he called him 'Edward'.

"You too not bad Ziva," he complemented, feeling the size of his bump. "You really don't hold back, huh?"

"No. You're pretty good too. And I am sorry about your head." She added quickly, getting a glare from Abby.

"I've had way worse," shrugged Ed, who was smiling, still a little light headed from both the sugar and the fight. "You should try fighting my teacher some day. I would pay to see that."

Suddenly, the autopsy door opened up, and a very angry looking Gibbs walked in, scowling. "What the hell happened?!"

"Hey, Boss," smiled Tony, somewhat nervously. "Look, we found him!"

"Yeah, I can see that, DiNozzo," Gibbs growled. "But what I'd like to know is why I had an unconscious teenager laid on one of the autopsy tables just a few seconds ago!"

"Oh, this is an autopsy table! As in dead bodies?" said Ed in disgust, quickly jumping up of the table, getting only a slight head rush in the process. "You couldn't have put me somewhere else!" Ed noticed that Gibbs was now glaring at him.

"Okay, I was knocked out, but it was completely my own fault," he tried, but Gibbs didn't look that convinced.

"Okay, this is what happened."

* * *

_The fact that Ed had actually asked to fight with someone was surprising, but what was more surprising was that Ziva had volunteered, and Ed accepted. They all followed them into the courtyard_

___"Guys, I really don't think this is a good idea!" Tim called nervously to Ed and Ziva, who were standing a few meters away from the other three, and only a few yards opposite each other._

_"Oh, calm down, McWimpy," said Tony who, for some reason, was actually looking forward to the fight. He had felt how hard the kid could kick, and if he could punch half as good, it would be a pretty good fight._

_"I think Tim's right. Don't do this!" Abby protested._

_"It's fine Abby, I'll be OK" Ed said as he tried to comfort Abby._

_"No, you won't. Please!" Abby gave Ed her puppy-dog face._

_'Tempting' Ed thought, "I need some way to burn off this energy Abby, unless you wand me to go on and on and on and on and on and on talking about nothing all day."_

_"Then do some push ups or something, but your gonna get hurt if you fight Ziva." Abby complained._

_"I'll be fine Abby." Ed replied._

_"Relax, Abby. It's just a friendly sparring match; I'm not going to kill him… I hope," she joked, getting an angry glare from Abby and determined smirk from Ed._

_"Please, Woman! I think I can handle you."_

_"Good luck! Try not to get too hurt, I don't want to have to clean up the blood," Tony called to Ed._

_The match started relatively simple. Ed started with a left hook. Ziva dodged, and grabbed the back of his hand, turned him around, and kicked him away from her. Ed rolled on the ground, and turned around to face Ziva. He ran to her and jumped. She jumped to the side, Ed landing where she once stood he threw his right leg at her, which she grabbed. Ed put his hands on the ground, and spun his other leg into her cheek, sending Ziva back. The only thing Tim, Abby and Tony could do at that time was simply stare in shock and disbelief. Ed looked almost like a ninja when he was fighting._

_"Oh, ho." Ziva said, which was everyone's sign that she was now serious. She gave Ed a left straight, which Ed dodged. Ziva then threw her right leg up to meet his ribs. Ed felt the shock, but grabbed her leg once he recovered from the blow. He hugged her leg, and ducked under it to the outside, where he kicked the outside of her leg, just above the knee. Ziva was knocked over, and stammered away from him. Ed closed in on her, in a fighting stance. She took this moment to lift her leg up and land a heavy blow on his.... sensitive areas._

_"Oh, Ziva! That was low!" shouted Tony, sympathising for Ed._

_As Ed crouched down, Ziva began to give Ed a left hook. Ed put up his right hand to block, but didn't realize what was about to happen until he didn't have enough time to move it. Ziva's blow landed on its intended target, sending pain surging through her arm. "Ah, you little!" Ziva grabbed Ed's head, and took it to her knee. Ed's head landed with a loud, sickly 'CRACK' before slumping down, looking almost like a rag doll. Ziva looked at her fist, which was starting to go bright red and twitched in pain. "What the hell did I hit?" She asked herself._

* * *

"And that's what happened," Ed finished, taking the now melted ice pack of his head. "After that I think they must have carried me in here or something."

"So your telling me that you, a highly trained Mossad Officer actually agreed to fight with a kid!?" Gibbs asked Ziva in disbelief.

"Hey, I'm not a kid! And I'm perfectly fine, I may not be able to win a fight with her, but I sure as hell can keep my self from getting seriously hurt! It was my fault that we fought, I was the one who suggested it, and I was the one who wanted to do it, it wasn't Ziva's fault!" Ed snapped angrily, returning the glare from Gibbs.

The whole room filled with a very awkward and tense silence. Hardly anyone, especially a kid, would have the nerve to say anything like that to Gibbs. He was either very brave or very stupid. Ed glared up at Gibbs, his golden eyes burning with anger as the man gave him an ice glare.

"What the _hell_ were you thinking!?"

"I don't see why you're so angry."

"Oh, I don't know, maybe the fact that you left the building without telling anyone when you're supposed to be under protection!"

"Abby asked me to go!"

"Or maybe that you just had a huge fight with one of my agents, and getting you both hurt!"

"Would you stop acting like I'm a kid, I'm 16. And by the way, I can look after myself! I've done it for years, I can do it now, and don't need you on my back!" he shouted at him, before he slamming the ice pack on the table and storming out of the room.

"Were do you think your going!?" Gibbs shouted after him.

"I'm going to cool of before I end up punching you in the face!" he yelled back, walking up the stairs.

He was about to follow him, before Ducky stopped him. "Let him go, Jethro. He just needs to cool of."

Gibbs sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose. He looked over towards the other. He pointed at Ziva.

"If you ever do anything like that aging, you'll be on desk duty for weeks!"

He moved on to Tony. "You better keep a better eye on that kid or so help me DiNozzo, I'll slap you so hard you Grandchildren will feel it!"

He turned to Abby. "Try not to give him any sugar."

Finally, he reached Tim. "And you… just keep an eye on the others."

After he said this, he quickly left the room and got into the elevator. 'This kid is going to make me completely grey if I don't catch this guy. Argh, I need coffee!'

* * *

Edward angrily kicked an empty can down the street and he walked out of the NCIS building for the second time that day. He wasn't quite sure what it was that finely made him snap, but it happened. Maybe it was because the realisation of where he was finely settling in. Perhaps it was because he was worried sick about Alphonse. I could have been because the sugar had just ran out of his body. Maybe it was the fact that his head was killing him. Or maybe it was because he didn't appreciate being treated like a child and being yelled at. Or maybe it was all of those things all together. The final straw that breaks the camel's back. He sighed angrily, his fists clenched. He felt angry tears pickle up into his eyes. He wiped them away quickly before they fell. He was just so confused and angry that he couldn't help but get worked up.

He walked around for ages, not really thinking about anything. He needed to just try and relax at walking seemed to be the best solution. When he noticed that it was getting dark, he suddenly realised that he had no idea were he was. He was near an empty playground, with swings and a slide, but he didn't know how to get back to either the building or Gibbs' house. Though honestly, he didn't really want to be around that man just yet. Sighing heavily, he walked over the playground and sat on one of the swings. Resting his head on the rusty old chain, he looked up at the dark sky, dotted with small sliver stars.

'_Even the stars are different here,'_ he thought, before putting his hands into his jackets pockets, trying to keep warm from the cold winds. He could here soft footsteps coming towards him, but he didn't look up. It would probably just be someone passing by or something like that. The noise moved be hind him and the stopped. Curiosity getting the better of him, he turned his head and looked up. Suddenly, something hit the side of his neck, full force, making him slip into darkness.

* * *

When Gibbs walked into the lab, a cup of coffee I his had, he was bombarded with a very frantic Abby.

"Gibbs! Please tell me that Ed's with you!"

"You mean he hasn't come back yet?"

"No…Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. He's been gone for ages, we have to find him Gibbs, we have to!"

"Abs, relax. You don't have to get so worked up.

"We have every reason to be worried about him Gibbs. We have to get him to a hospital, and fast!"

Gibbs frowned, completely confused. "Abby, what are you talking about?"

"Its his blood Gibbs! I finally got around to running it. Oh, I should have done it sooner. Look, look!" she said, pointing too one of her computer screens. "It's his potassium level. It's unbelievably high. If we don't get him to a hospital soon, he's going to die!"

* * *

**AN: Please Review!**


	9. Familiar voices

**AN: Okay, I hope you like this one, please enjoy!**

* * *

"Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God…" Abby muttered desperately, shuffling nervously in the passengers seat in Tony's car. "This is all my fault. If I had ran the test sooner…"

"Abby, It's not your fault. You didn't force him to walk out," Tony said, trying to calm her down. "Besides, what's the worse that high potassium can do to ya?"

"Acute kidney failure, chronic kidney failure, lupus nephritis, rejection if he needs a kidney transplant, obstructive uropathy, glomerulonephritis. And his is so high that he could die any minute if his kidneys start to shut down!" she rambled, like she was reading something she had read a thousand times.

"…Okay, so it is kinda bad," said Tony, pulling the car onto a sidewalk. "Look, he couldn't have gone very far. Tim and Ziva are looking at the other side of town, we've got this side and Gibbs is at the train station. We'll find him, he'll be fine. I still don't think you should have come though."

"I'm a big girl, I can look after myself! Besides, it give us a better chance of finding him," she said, as the two of them got of the car.

"Okay, but I still don't see why you're so worked up about one kid. I mean it's our job to keep him safe, not yours."

To be honest, Abby didn't really know why she was so worried about Edward. Sure, she would be concerned if anyone had gotten into this situation, but for some reason she felt really connected to him, a bit like she did with the others on the team.

"You got your cell?" asked Tony.

"Yeah, yeah! I'll go here, so go there. I'll call if I find anything," she told the man, before heading in one direction, and Tony in the other.

'_Okay, if I was an angry teen, were would I go to blow of steam?'_ she thought. _'Well I guess bars are out of the question. There's no way that he could have pass for 21. What about strip joints? Nah, he doesn't seam the type. And I don't think there is any around here. Let's see, what dose he like? …He seamed pretty smart, maybe a library or a museum or something? Let me think… Where would I go?'_ Suddenly it hit her. A triumphant smile grew on her face as she started walking a little faster down the path, knowing exactly where to go.

* * *

"Excuse me," said Tony, walking up to a teenage boy with a black hood bulled over his head. "Have you seen a kid, about 4'11, long blond hair, short temper?"

"So what if we have?" asked the teen, who had obviously just had a few beers.

"Have you seen him?"

"Maybe we have maybe we haven't."

"Look, I'm not going to get into an immature fight with you, so where's the kid?"

"What, you a cop or something?"

"No. Federal agent."

"So…cop."

"Agent."

"Cop."

"Agent."

"Cop."

"Agent!"

"… Still a cop."

Tony sighed heavily in annoyance. It had been an unbelievably long day and talking to a drunken teen, who had barely enough brain cells alive to stand on his own two feet wasn't really helping things. Suddenly he felt his phone vibrating and quickly answered it, walking away from the kid.

"DiNozzo."

"_Tony!"_ He heard Abby's voice through the cell.

"Abby, please tell me you've seen him!"

"_Well… not exactly."_

"What do you mean, 'not exactly'?"

"_Well, I figured that he might have gone to the park, you know to cool off?"_

"Why'd you think he'd you to the park?"

"_Cos I used to Tony! Anyway, I found his watch near the swings!"_

"You mean that weird old pocket watch? So he was there!"

"_Well, yeah, I guess, but you dint get it. This watch was the only item on him apart from his clothes, and I can tell he's got some sort of connection to it, so why would he leave it in the middle of a park?"_

"So, you think something might have happened to him?"

"_I think that maybe someo-"_ suddenly she was cut of my a large 'thump' noise and he head the phone crashing to the ground before the line went dead. His eyes widened and his stomached flipped, and she scrabbled to ring her cell back. It rang for three minutes. There was no answer. His heart thumped hard against his chest. This couldn't be happening. It couldn't, it just couldn't. He started running, letting the phone ring all the way. It couldn't be what he though. She probably just bumped into someone and dropped her phone or something like that, it would be something silly like that. It had to be. He started to hear Abby's ring tone and began to run faster. It guided him at a small park. Laid on the ground was her cell. She was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

'_My head… did Ziva hit me again? Geez, what happened? We fought… I yelled at Gibbs… I walked out… I was in that park… and someone… someone… someone knocked me out? What the hell do I do to make someone do that!? Okay, stupid question, but still!'_ Edward slowly began to open his heavy eyes, though his vision was bleared. His head felt like it was stuffed full of cotton wool, and that fight with Ziva earlier on didn't really help matters either. Wherever he was, it was dark and a strange fusty smell hung around him, like no fresh air had been around in a while. He suddenly realised that he was tied to a chair, and very tightly at that, by what seamed like rope. He shuck his head slightly, trying to clear his head. Ed moved around a bit, trying to see just how tight the ropes were, when he suddenly realised something. His right arm was missing.

He hadn't realised it before because he couldn't exactly feel it. It was like your teeth. You cant feel them, but when they make contact with something, you know its there. Looking down at himself, he saw that his whole right sleeve had been torn straight of. His heart thumped in his chest as he began to panic a little. He couldn't use alchemy to get out and he couldn't even snap them with his automail. He quickly looked around the room, and was quick to notice that it looked a lot like some sort of an abandoned warehouse. The only source of light was a single light bulb handing down from the tall ceiling. The wear house had a lot of large wooden crates dotted around and on one of them had his automail arm on it. '_What the hell am I supposed to do now!?'_

"Well, well, well. Look who's awake," A male voice echoed through the old building, a menacing tone to his voice. Ed quickly looked over towards were the noise originated, near one of the wooden crates. There stood a tall, skinny man, with wispy brown hair and hollow grey eyes. He was wearing a large, white butchers overcoat that was dotted with blood stains. In his left hand, he held an overly large butchers knife, which glistened in the light.

"Not bad, huh?" the man asked, noticing that Ed was staring at it with wide, scared eyes. "I made it myself a few years back. Nothing like making something that you love with your own hand, right?"

Ed tried to focus on his voice, mostly to distract himself. He knew that he had heard that voice before. Who was he? He knew him, he was sure of it. As he heard the rebounding echoes of the man's voice, he suddenly realised it.

"B-Barry the Copper?" he tried, trying not to make his voice come out scared and shaky.

"'Barry the Copper', huh? That has a nice ring to it. Pulse it is my name, mind if I use?" he said, rubbing his stubble covered chin.

Ed squirmed in his seat. How on earth was this possible? Barry was trapped inside a suit of armour, who could he be a person, and why didn't he recognise him?

"Why am I here? Why me?" Ed asked him. He had decided to try and keep him talking until he could think of something.

"Well, in all honesty, I thought you were a girl. In my defence, you do have long hair for a guy. But still, you've got pretty good meat on ya, so I thought that I might was well see what it was like with a guy," he said simply, running his finger over the sharp blade.

Ed suddenly felt an anger raise inside him. "How can you murder someone so easily!?"

"Because I can," Barry replied, a wild look in his eyes as he began to step towards Edward. "Everyone wasn't to kill, they just don't know it. If men get sent f to war, they can kill without a moments hesitation, and why? Because they want to."

"That… that's not true! Stay away from me!" he snapped, panicking as the man continued to walk slowly towards him.

The man ran the cold metal down from the boy's right temple down to his chin and smirked. "You're shaking," he told him, enjoying the sight of the cowering boy in front of him. Ed glared up at him, his eyes a mixture of anger and fear. Barry looked further down the boy, at his right shoulder. "You're really something different, kid. Pretty high-tech too. Had to get rid of that ugly metal limb though, too mad it wasn't a flesh one."

"How'd you find out?" he asked, trying to distract the both of them.

"When I had to get you in my van. You were way to heavy for your size," he said, taking a few steps away from him, to Ed's relief. "Of course when that girl came looking for you, I had to take her too."

Ed snapped his head up to look at the older man. "Girl? Who?" he asked desperately.

The man grinned and walked over to the closest wall, on Ed's right, straight towards a large, old cloth that was draped over something. Pulling it back in one swift motion, he reviled Abby, laid on the cold stone ground. Black tape covered her mouth and bounded her hands and feat together. She was wearing the same lab cost that he had last seen her in, thought it was a bit muddy, like she had been dragged. Her black hair was starting to come undone from her pigtails and her make up was a beginning to rub off. Her eyes were just starting to open.

'_Thank goodness, she's still alive!'_ the thought, relived slightly, though still extremely worried about her.

"You don't have to worry just yet," said Barry, snapping Ed from his thoughts. "Its better for the meat if you let it tenderise for a few days. Makes it so much more fun to slice."

"You're really sick, you know that?" growled Ed.

"Am I really?" he asked, the crazy look in his eyes flickered again, walking much faster towards him then he did before. "Is there really all that much difference between me and everyone else, even me and you? We all to things that others would consider sick twisted and discussing-" he suddenly plunged the cleaver into Ed's left shoulder, making him cry out on pain, as the blood leaked out from his cut. "But it dosent stop us from doing them, dose it? Everyone has something that they have under raps, the mother of all secrets. I bit like that arm of yours? And how you got it? See, were not that much different, are we?"

Painful memories replayed in him mind. Ed glared up at the man, and smirked despite his pain. "You have not idea how different the two of us are. And I have a lot more secrets then just that arm," he said, before a bright, blue light and a crackle of electricity appeared in front of them.

* * *

**AN: I know, I'm evil for leaving it at another cliff hanger, I'm sorry. For those who may not understand, this is set in the manga, so Ed would have never met Barry while he was all fleashy, only in the armour. Please Review.**


	10. Morphine

**AN: Hi again!!! I'm so sorry that it's been 3 whole weeks! I'm so sorry TT^TT. Anyway, I'm back now! Oh my god, this chapter was killing me, I had to re-write this 5 whole times. So I hope you will like it. Enjoy!**

* * *

It was at that time Ed was very grateful for the large amount of blood that was leaking freely from his shoulder. True, it was extremely painful, but as soon as it had managed to run down his arm, it gave him the perfect way to try and get free. Feeling the cold, thick liquid to reach his palm, he shaking drew a quick transmutation circle on the chair. With that, he had activated, causing a bright, blue light and a crackle of electricity, and making the small wooden chair he sat on brake under him, forcing him to come crashing down on the cold, stone floor.

"What the-" Barry started asking in shock, his eyes wide and staring at Edward. He was cut of though, as Ed had very quickly swept his foot under the man's legs, causing him to topple over and he leaped to his feat and scrambled over towards were Abby lay, kneeling besides her. The girl was fully awake by now, as the shock of everything had snapped her out of her sleepy state. Her eyes were wide with fear, and she was trembling violently. His hand shaking, Ed desperately trying to rip the thick, black tapped that bounded her hands to the pipe on the wall. However, only having one arm but him at a disadvantage.

"D-Damn it!" he cured, unable to put even a tiny tear on the tape. Abby's terrified eyes shifted from him to something behind him. Looking over his shoulder, Ed saw Barry looming over him, his knife held high above his head. Screaming in terror, he shot beneath the man's legs, in a desperate attempt to get away, or at least to get him away from Abby. His heart thumped heard inside his chest. He was practically useless in his current condition. He wouldn't be able to help Abby. He couldn't even help himself. He froze in absolute fear, laid there on the ground. He could barely even move. The only thought that went through his head as the man once again raised the cleaver knife, grinning madly, was that he was going to die.

"FREEZE! Federal agents!" he heard a gruff voice bark, but it was too late. The shinning blade had already come crashing town, meeting the centre of the boy's chest. A blowing pain spread through his torso followed by crimson blood before the sound of gunshots were heard and Barry the chopper slumped to the ground. The hard pounding of feat was heard, before he was aware of someone neat beside him.

"Edward? Ed, can you hear me?" the voice asked him. He immediately knew who it was. It was Gibbs. He tried to answer him, but his mouth filled with thick, copper tasting liquid when he did. He didn't have to be a doctor to understand that this was bad. Very, very bad.

The voices around him were now muffled. He couldn't make it all out. People yelling and shouting. Something was pushed on his chest. Someone was holding his hand. Sirens. Being lifted up. Moving. Still holding on. And then darkness.

* * *

Abby sat silently in the small, privet hospital room, gently clutching onto the teenagers hand. She couldn't get over how young he actually looked, laid on the bed, being swallowed by the large white sheets. His long, golden hair was sprawled over the pillow and a few odd strands over his pale face, his chest slowly rising and falling. He looked so peaceful. He had an IV drip in his arm, feeding him morphine, as the doctors had only just finished patching him up. She could here the others on the other side of the closed door. Mostly Gibbs, as he was still yelling at the doctor.

"Look, I don't want any medical talk. If I needed that I would be talking to a doctor," he yelled.

"But… you are talking to one," the young man told him nervously. Abby felt a bit bad for him, being cornered by Gibbs like that.

"Well, obviously not or else you would be doing your job!"

"Look, Mr. Gibbs-"

"Agent. Special Agent," he corrected him bluntly.

"Agent Gibbs, there is nothing we can do about his high potassium."

"So your telling me that I just have to sit back and watch some kid die."

"No. Look… I don't understand this. None of the doctors here understand this, but that boy… is body seems to have… adapted to the potassium level."

The silence let Abby know that the older man was giving him the 'Gibbs-Stare'. She couldn't really blame him, as she herself had no idea what the doctor was talking about.

"L-like our bodies function with our chemicals, so dose his, their just different. Its like he's a different species or something like that," the doctor carried on. "It's a medical mystery. We weren't even too sure about giving him morphine when we found out."

"How can you be so sure about this?"

"His organs would show sins that they were at risk of damage, his don't. They're as healthy as any teenage boys. He's perfectly fine. Now, if you will excuse me, I have some other patents to attend to." The doctor told him, before walking down the hall. She heard Gibbs sigh heavily and walk away. She didn't take her eyes of Ed once while listening to that conversation. Was that even possible, the things the doctor had said? About him being fine? So much had happened recently that Abby wasn't really sure of anything.

She remembered when Gibbs, Tony and Ziva came crashing thought that warehouse door, and shot that man down as he attacked Ed. Gibbs ran over to Ed, and Ziva ran to her, freeing her from the sticky bounds. Tony stood there, his mouth hung open. When asked what was wrong, he merely pointed to Ed's light arm. It was gone. Nothing past his shoulder. It was then that Tony noticed a strange, robot like right hand laid on one of the wooden crates. Gibbs yelled at him some more, telling him to call an ambulance as he tried to stop Ed from bleeding. Abby was already there, gripping hold of his hand, not daring to let go of him. It was all happening so fast that Abby couldn't really remember it all very clearly, only that when the medics finely got there, she rode with him to the hospital. And that when the doctors were at him, she sat alone in the waiting room until he was out and she could be with him again. She couldn't help but remember the strange blue light that had happened before…

"A…Abby…?"

That sudden, weak voice snapped Abby right out of her thoughts.

"Yeah, yeah its me. Are you okay? Hoe do you feel? Are you hurt?" she asked rapidly, getting all the worried tension off her chest.

"I'm… kay… Abby… chest… hurt bit… and a bit… weird…." he muttered softly, barely loud enough for her to hear, still not opening his eyes.

"I can imagine," she joked slightly. "Its probably the morphine or something. Anyway, How'd you know it was me?" she asked, trying to keep him awake just a little longer.

"…Smell."

"Smell?"

"Like…. Moms…"

This surprised Abby a bit. Mostly due to the fact that he hadn't actually mentioned his mother once since she had known him.

"What's she like?"

"Nice… used to be… listen… `m sorry… sorry… Abs… couldn't… help you… `m sorry," she said, his voice braking slightly, opening his eyes a little bit and looking over at her.

"Huh? Sorry? About what?"

"All of this… my fault… you could have… been really hurt… or worse…"

"Its not your fault! You couldn't do anything about it."

"That's just it… I should have done something…"

"Listen to me, Ed. This is not your fault. And you couldn't do anything about it; you were missing an arm…" she told him firmly, before drifting of slightly. She couldn't help but look over at Edwards's right side. They still hadn't reattached his arm yet. She still couldn't quite get over it. It wasn't just that, it was also most of his left leg which had been left on. What on earth could have happened to him? Though she had to admit that they were very state of the art, almost futuristic.

Edward went silent again and closed him eyes. Thinking that he had gone to sleep again, Abby sat back in her armchair. About a minute later, Ed turned his face to look at her, opening his golden eyes once more. But this time he was grinning. A small grin, but it was defiantly there, along with an uneasy laugh.

"You smell like her, but you…. You don't act like her…" he said, still laughing.

"How do I act like then?" Abby asked, guessing that it was probably the morphine that was making Ed act so strangle.

"Kinda…. Kinda like Winry. Maybe a bit like LanFan as well…I don't really know her that well though. She doesn't talk much… only to Ling and Fu really… " Ed rambled simply. In all honesty, Abby hadn't a clue what he was talking about, but she didn't interrupt him. "I wonder were he is… I haven't seen Ling for ages. Hope he's okay, or LanFan will kill me. Though… she probably couldn't really do that with one arm. Besides… Ling can look after himself…he's not the one I'm… worried about… " He went quiet again, his laughter fading, along with his smile. He looked over at Abby, a serious, but still tired, look on his face.

"Listen… Abby, I need you to do something for me."

"Okay. What?" she asked, I bit surprised by his sudden change of moods.

"I need you to find my little brother," he told her seriously, though his words were still a bit slurred. "I need you to find Alphonse, okay?"

"Alphonse Elric?" She was very surprised about this. Edward had never mentioned that he had a little brother, lest of all that he needed to find him.

"Yeah. He's 14, really tall and shiny. He looks kinda mean but he's the biggest softie I know. He's always trying to sneak cats in his body, but I can hear then scratching his chest… We live in Amestris. He might be in Resembool with Winry and Granny. Or maybe with the Cornel. Roy mustang, that's his name. Flame alchemist. He can be really annoying sometimes…. I feel really tired. Will… will you be here when I wake up, Abby?"

"Sure. You go to sleep," she told him, brushing some loose hairs out of his face. He fell asleep almost instantly and Abby watched him for a while, before her bladder got the best of her, and she left the boy to his dreams.

* * *

**AN: Please review!**


	11. Notes

**AN: Sorry about the wait! Okay, this one's a little bit short, but I was having some trouble with it, so.. yeah... Anyway, I hope you still enjoy it!**

* * *

Tony and McGee sat somewhat nervously in the hospitals waiting room. They had both followed Abby to the hospital, as did Gibbs, but unlike their boss, they had both decided to stay. It wasn't as if their killer was on the louse anymore. Tim was venting his anxiety through eating whatever junk food the vending machines had, where as Tony, as always, preferred to talk about the situation a bit more.

"What kind of an idiot does something like this?" he snapped, scratching his head.

"Does what?" Tim asked before taking another bit out of his candy bar.

"Not only did he yell a Gibbs, which by the way I have to give the kid props for, not only that, but he ran out of there and got him self lost, but he also got himself kidnapped by a maniac and dragged Abby down with him. I'm telling you Probie, if that crazy butcher guy hasn't killed him, Gibbs will."

"Yeah, I guess."

"How'd you think he got them?"

"Got what, Tony," sighed Tim, wishing that the older man would shut up for just 5 minutes.

"You know, those metal… machine… thingies. His arm and leg?"

"… Don't know," Tim mumbled. Edwards fake limbs had most defiantly made him curious about the boy. Normally, it was people in the army or navy who needed stuff like that as they had lost boy part in the war, but there was no way that Ed could have been in that situation, right? He was too young, and Tim could tell from his attitude that he was most defiantly not a marine or anything along those lines. But he defiantly did have fake limbs. He had seen them with his own two eyes when he arrived at the hospital. They were amazingly high-tech; he just couldn't get over it.

"There kind of like something out of your comic books, McGeek," said Tony, speaking one of Tim's thoughts.

"I was thinking more along the lines of your movies Tony," McGee said.

"Hey," said a sad voice from behind Tim, and a hand gently tapped his shoulder. Looking up, he saw Abby stood there. Her pigtails were out, she eyes were tired, and she was holding a candy bar with contained nougat in her hand. Smiling slightly, Tim past her one of her candy bars be had gotten from one of the machines earlier. "Thanks," she mumbled, before sitting down with them and taking a bit out of the chocolate.

"So… how's the kid?" asked Tony.

"Sleeping. He woke up for a few minutes. I think he was high of the morphine though," Abby paused for a few minutes. "Hey, Timmy. Do you have a pen and paper?"

"Erm… sure," he said, handing her a biro and his note pad, not really sure why she would want it. Abby got up and headed down the hall. She quickly scribbled a few words down on the pad as soon as she was out of the boys' eye-sites. She wrote down 'Winry', 'LanFan', 'Ling', 'Fu', 'Amestris', 'Resembool', 'Cornel Roy Mustang' and 'Flame Alchemist'. She wasn't completely sure what the last one meant, but she still wrote it down. She stopped and thought about the description that Edward had given her of his little brother. Maybe he was just high of morphine, no on could possibly be like that, could the? Still, she thought it best if she looked it up, so she quickly jotted down 'Alphonse Elric' on the page. Then she stopped once again, and she thought about something that she never had before, something she should have checked a long time ago. She scribbled something else down, before ripping the piece of paper out of Tim's book, stuffing it in her pocket and finished eating her snack.

A sudden, loud crashing noise caught her attention and concern when she relished that it came from the room Ed was sleeping. She quickly ran to the door and yanked it open, to find Edward sprawled on the floor on his back, his legs still resting on the bed. He looked up at Abby from the floor, before smiling awkwardly and saying, "Hey, Abby."

"What on earth do you think you're doing!?" she snapped angrily. He should have been resting, not falling out of his bed.

"Sorry. I kinda panicked when I woke up," he said, sitting back up. Abby noticed that the I.V. drip that was once stuck in his arm, simply hung down from the bag, the other end not attached to him any more. Her mind went back the night she took some of his blood. _'Wow,'_ she thought, _'He must really hate needles.'_

"So, how are you feeling?" she asked Ed, helping him back up on the bed.

"As well as could be expected I guess," he said simply, his hands running over his chest were they had stitched him up. He attention was drawn to him right shoulder. "Hey, Abby, do you know where my arm is?"

Abby couldn't seem to get over how odd that sounded. "No… I think the doctors have it. I'll go see, okay? You just… stay here," she told the teenager, not wanting him to strain himself or anything.

"Yeah, sure," he replied, as he flopped back down on hi bed and Abby turned and left the room.

Ed really hated hospitals. He hated being around sick people. He hated the fact that some of those people wouldn't get better and might even die. He hated the smell that lingered around everywhere. But mostly, he hated having to sit around and not being able to do anything! Yep, he really hated hospitals. After a few minutes, Ed heard the door opening. Looking up he was angry to find, not Abby stood there, but Gibbs. Oh, he did not need this right now.

"What do you want?" he huffed, frowning.

"You know, I'd cut the attitude if I was you, kid," he told Ed seriously, glaring down at him.

"Stop calling me 'kid'!" he snapped back. "Why are you even here anyway!?"

"Well, mostly due to the fact that you got yourself hurt and could have gotten both yourself and a member of my team killed!" he yelled at him. Gibbs had felt his anger bubbling up for hours, and he was happy to finely be getting some of it of his chest.

"You think I planed for that to happen, you idiot!?" he shouted straight back. "You honestly think that I have a death wish?"

"Well, with the way you ran out of NCIS not a few hours ago, then yeah, I think maybe you do."

"Oh, shut up!" he shouted, unable to come up with a better comeback. Just then, he noticed that Abby was stood in the doorway, looking a bit nervous. Behind her was a doctor, holing his auto-mail arm in his hands.

"Hey, doctor," said Gibbs, trying to control his temper, at least while Abby was in the room. Ed was simply happy that he could get his arm back.

The Doctor would not even let him reattach his arm, until he asked him a dozen and one questions about who he was feeling, did he feel like he could walk properly, as his chest still hurting and so on. Final, after what felt like forever to Edward, he was allowed to reconnect his arm. The doctor did want to help him with his auto-mail, but the teen refused, knowing that he could do it himself. With that, the man left.

"So… pretty cool arm," Abby commented, as Edward was getting his arm ready. He had to get it position before actually slotting it in.

"Erm… thanks?" he said, unsure if that actually was a complement. He bit down on his lower lip, as he became to slit the arm into his shoulder. Pushing it in, a strong, electrical surge flew through his entire body. It usually stopped after a second or so, but for some reason, it didn't stop. Unable to hide his pain, Ed let out a loud yelp, as the electric pulse ran up and down his body. He grabbed hold of his right arm and gave it a hard tug, snapping it full in place. I sighed heavily in relief when the pain stopped.

Abby looked worriedly at the boy. "Are you okay?" she asked, concerned for him.

"Y-yeah… I'm okay," he said, panting a little bit.

Abby paused for a few seconds. "Hey, Gibbs. Why don't you go get Ed's clothes?" she asked the man, giving him pleading eyes. She wanted a few minutes alone with Edward. Deciding that he could lecture the kid later on, Gibbs reluctantly left the room.

"Listen, Ed," Abby started, sitting besides him on the bed. "Do you remember anything about before?"

A bit confused by the question, Ed answered, "You mean in that warehouse?"

"No, here. You woke up a little while ago. You were talking to me. Don't you remember?"

"No… but, I do remember one thing. I think someone was holding my hand for ages. Was that you?"

"Yeah, that was me."

"Oh, well… thanks," said Edwards, blushing slightly. "Hey, Abs? What happened to him? You know… that guy before."

"He was shot. Ducky's taking a look at him now," she answered, and she could have sworn what she felt him shudder a bit. "So… you ready to get out of here?"

Ed grinned at her. "Absolutely!"

* * *

**AN: Please review!**


	12. Turning Points

**AN: Happy Halloween! Well... early halloween. Anyway, sorry this is a short one, but I've been really busy latly with coursework to come up with some ideas, so if any of you lot would like to give me some to give me some helpo when I do start t write, that would be great. Okay, enjoy!**

* * *

The ride back from the hospital was anything but comfortable. For one thing, he had to ride with Gibbs, as he was forced to stay at his house. Another was that before he had even gotten in the car, Tony and McGee were asking him about 101 questions about his auto-mail, which were all left unanswered as Ed ignored then because he really wasn't in the mood. Finally, above all, it was the silence. Ever since Gibbs had started up the car neither one of them had said a thing, and the tension was very high. It was much worse then they other rides they had shared. It was driving Edwards crazy. He could tell just how frustrated the older man was by looking at him. His jaw was clenched, along with fists, which were gripping hold of the steering wheel so tight that his knuckles were white, and his eyes were set on the rode. Even though he hated swallowing his pride, Edward couldn't help but begin to see how Gibbs must have felt like before. He could see how much Gibbs cared for Abby, even if they were just standing in a room together he could feel it, and then because of him, she just suddenly disappeared. He had to relate… he knew how scary it could be to think someone you really care about it gone.

"Look," he stared, finally breaking the silence. "About all this, I'm really sorr-"

"Don't apologize." Gibbs interrupted him. "It's a sign of weakness."

'_Geez, was he in an army or something?'_ he thought, a little angry that the man couldn't even accept his apology, but Gibbs did seam a little bit less tense. Just a little.

"I didn't mean for this… any of this to happen," Ed told him.

"Yeah, I kind of guessed that," he answered shortly.

"You… Oh, your are just impossible, you know that!?" Ed couldn't help snapping at him, angrily. There he was, trying to apologize for something that he felt amazingly guilty about, and he was barely even accepting that he was even there.

The rest of the ride was sat out in silence once again, his stubbornness getting the better of Ed. Almost the second the car came to a stop, Gibbs leaped out about walked quickly into his house, leaving the door open for Ed, who walked after him, slowly. He continued to causally follow the man through the house and down the stairs into the basement, where Gibbs immediately grabbed some of the sandpaper, which was on lying on the table, and started to sand some of the wood on his boat.

"Go to sleep," Gibbs told him after a while, not making eye contact with the boy.

"Excuse me?" he asked, a little taken back by his sudden command.

"Go to sleep," he repeated. "The doctor told me that you kneed rest, so get some sleep."

Ed would have argued, but he did remember that he just get stabbed in the chest not a day ago. The doctors had considered keeping him in longer, but he was distressing the other patients.

"Fine," he huffed, as he walked back up the stairs and into the man's living room. He would have liked to sleep on a bed, but for all he knew Gibbs only had one. Besides, the sofa wasn't that bad. Looking at the clock, he found that it was 6 o'clock in the morning. Geez, no wonder he was so tiered. He flopped down lazily on the sofa, and tried to get to sleep.

* * *

Gibbs was not a happy man. Not a happy man indeed. In fact, he was very angry. He wouldn't go so far as say furious, but he was very angry. The kid was just so… frustrating! He didn't think that he had ever met someone who could be more annoying to him. Well, except maybe Tony. He knew he should cut the kid some slack, but right then, he was just so mad at him that he couldn't he couldn't even trust himself to talk to the kid, encase he said something he might regret later. Besides, it was easier to use his negative energy on sanding his boat.

After working on his boat for about two hours, Gibbs finally stopped, deciding that he should really get some sleep. As he walked past his living room, he saw Edward aid on the sofa, sleeping soundly. He couldn't help but look down at Ed's prosthetic arm, which was visible, as he was not wearing gloves at the time. His mind wondered about how he actually got his fake limbs. Maybe he was in a train wreck or something like that? Yet another wave of fatherly feelings came over him.

'_Your going to be the death of me, kid,'_ he thought, as he walked over to Edward. Awkwardly, Gibbs very gently picked him up, bridle style, and began walking up the stairs, which was very hard, seeing as how heavy he was and the size of the boy. However, he did finally manage to get him into his spear bedroom without wakening him up. Gibbs wasn't even sure why he had a guest bedroom, he never had guests. Placing him gently on the bed, he pulled the blanket over the boy before leaving to go to his own bedroom. He reached for his phone and started dialling numbers. It rang for a few seconds before it was picked up on the other end.

_"Hello, auto-"_

"Put Ducky on, Palmer," he told the little autopsy gremlin. A few seconds past before her heard his old friends voice.

_"Ah, Jethro. What can I do for you?"_

"The Body, Duck."

_"Ah, yes. Well, it seamed that one of the bullets fired when straight through the back of the chest and into the heart. Death was probably instantaneous,"_ he told him.

"He the one who killed them all?"

"_Abby has just confirmed that. The finger prints match his."_

"Good."

_"How is young Edward anyway?"_ Ducky asked, concern in his voice, _"He gave us all quite a scare."_

"He'll live. And since We've now caught the guy, I'll contact his parents tomorrow to come get him."

_"Yes, I suppose. Oh, wait, Jethro!"_ he called, just as Gibbs was about to hang up. _"Do you think you could have a word with Abigail later?"_

"Why's that Duck?"

_"Well, she seems a little distracted. It's probably nothing, but could you please talk to her?"_

"Sure. I'll see ya Duck."

* * *

_He landed with a hard 'thump' on the ground. Gasping tiredly, he sat up to face the large, black gate. Suddenly, the feeling of another presents was in the room. She fearfully looked behind him, to find yet another large, black gate and a small figure sat down in front of it. It had long, shaggy blond hair all the way down its back and from what he could see, as unbelievably skinny. It began to turn its head slowly, and he was met with an all to familiar face, with the soft golden eyes of his little brother._

"_Alphonse!" she yelled, scrambling to him feet and running towards him, before something started pulling him back, a thousand arms gripping him. "Hurry! Al! Come on!"_

"_I can't," a hoarse, ghostly whisper replied from its mouth. "Your not my soul."_

"_I'll come back for you," he screamed desperately. "I promise! Just wait! I promise!"_

Edward's eyes shot open, snapping out of his dreams. His body was covered in cold sweat and was panting hard. He stumbled blindly towards the bathroom, where he began splashing warm water on his face. Seeing his reflection in the mirror, he found a pale face looking back at him, steam slowly rising from it. That was it. His stress was going straight through the roof. He had to get back. He promised. He promised his little brother. He had to.

* * *

**AN: Please Review!**


	13. Tricks

**Happy Halloween! I wan't to thank Kiarra-Chan for the idea for this one, I really loved it! :D Enjoy!**

* * *

When Gibbs walked into Abby's lab later that day, around 6pm, he was met with the loud music of a familiar film 'The nightmare before Christmas', 'This is Halloween.' Abby had made him watch it with her when the movie first came out. It seam appropriate, as it was only a day or two away from Halloween, one of the worst holidays for anyone in their line of work. The Goth forensic scientist was typing a few things onto her keyboard, though he had no idea what.

"Hey, Abs!" he greeted, walking over towards her.

Abby jumped a little out of surprise, like she always did, before spinning around to face him, a large smile on her face, like always. "Gibbs!" she said happily, before giving him a brief, but warm hug. "What, no Caf-Pow?"

"I'll get you one in a bit. How you doing?" he asked her.

"Me? Great! I found this new online game where you can play as all these really cool characters! Look, look, look!" she said, practically dragging him over to the computer screen. Gibbs didn't really understood how those games worked, but he did understand that the person on the screen was the one Abby was controlling.

"So, are you a witch?" he asked, thinking that would be the best choice for Abby.

"The didn't have that option, so I'm a worrier. Pretty cool, huh? So Anyway, how are you and Ed?" she asked, taking another large mouthful of her fizzy beverage.

"Alright I guess. You sure your okay?" he asked again.

"Of course I'm okay!" she replied brightly. "Now, I have to go fight a dragon lord, so I'll see you later. Oh, and remember. Caf-Pow!" she ordered him, before plopping herself down on the chair and fiddling with the computer. Gibbs sighed to himself and left the room. Maybe Ducky had it wrong and maybe Abby was just fine. She defiantly seemed all right. She was probably just had too much to think about, and the game was helping her vent. Yeah, that was probably it.

* * *

"Well, if it isn't robot man himself!" Tony said cheerfully, noticing that Ed had just walked into the bullpen. Gibbs had left him in the car park, immediately going down to see Abby. Although Ed did want to see her two, he didn't want to be around Gibbs. The teenager defiantly didn't look himself, with very pale skin and huge dark bags under his eyes.

"I am not in the mood, Tony," he warned the older man, as he flopped down at Tim's desk as he hadn't come in yet. He sounded tiered and sort of worried.

"Oh, come on! It's almost Halloween, you should be happy!"

"Well, I'm not. And… what's hollow queen?"

"It's 'Halloween'! Wait, you've never heard of Halloween?" Tony asked amazed. Ed shook his head, not really interested.

"You do not even like Halloween, Tony," piped up Ziva, as she finished her paperwork.

"That, Zee-Vah, is besides the point."

"Then what is?" Ed asked tiredly.

"Look, this is not about me, this is about you, Ed. Okay, seeing as we don't have anything remotely covered in sugar around here, I guess we'll just have to go for a trick."

"Do I have to?" asked Edward, not really interested in anything Tony had in mind. He just had too much going on to focus on anything.

"Yes you have to!" Tony insisted, a large, slightly evil grin appearing on his face.

Ziva shook her head. "But it is not even Halloween yet."

"So?" asked Tony. "We might as well do it while he's here!"

"If I agree to this, you buy me a meal, deal?" Ed demanded. He hadn't actually had a decent meal in a few days, just odd snacks and stuff, so he was positively starving.

"Deal!" he said immediately. "And Ziva, if you don't tell Gibbs or McGeek, then I wont tell them that you accidentally lost those pictures on the Jenkins Case."

"What!? I did no such think! You deleted the folder!"

"Yeah, but how's computer were they on?"

"Well, mine, but only because you were trying to read my e-mails!"

"And who do you think Gibbs will believe?" he asked her, still grinning.

"Just give up now, Ziva. He's not going to stop," advised Ed.

She sighed heavily. "Okay, fine, what are we doing?"

* * *

She was so dead. _Dead,_ dead. How could she do that? How could she have lied to Gibbs like that? _Was she okay?_ Of course she wasn't okay! She had been kidnapped and worried sick in a hospital not 24 hours ago, how could that be okay? And that wasn't just it, that wasn't all she had lied about. Oh god, she had to talk to someone, anyone!

"Hey, Abby?"

"Palmer!" she yelled excitedly, rushing over to him quickly. "Thank god you're here!"

"…Huh?" he stammered nervously, a little confused by her actions.

"I need to talk to you!"

"Oh… I-it's just that, erm, Ed wanted to as I had any of those spray on cobweb things, but I-I didn't, so I though maybe… maybe you did?" he asked, as awkwardly as he always was.

Abby sighed slightly. Maybe Palmer wouldn't be the best person to tell. He didn't handle very well under presser and had nerves like pencil lead. Not that she didn't like the little autopsy gremlin; he just wasn't the best at keeping secrets. She needed someone she could really trust, someone that understood her, someone like-

"Abby?"

Perfect!

"Timmy!" she moved quickly to her new guest. "Thank god you're here! I need to talk to you!"

"Ah… b-but…" stammered Jimmy, a little confused again.

"Here," Abby shoved a bottle of 'Instant spider webs' in the palm of his hand. "Been nice seeing you, Jimmy. Tell Edward to have fun." She then practically pushed Palmer out of her lab and locked the door, before turning around to face a little nervous looking McGee.

"Abby… what's this about?" he asked her.

"I need your help."

"On what?"

"I lied to Gibbs!" she blabbed out, clamping her palm over her mouth as if shocked by what she herself had just said.

"You what!?" exclaimed Tim, equally shocked.

"That's not all," she whimpered helplessly.

"What else could you have done?"

"I'm keeping a secret from him," she said quickly, once again covering her mouth. Tim copied her action.

Gulping slightly, he lowered his hand and asked, "Okay. Okay, how…how bad is it?"

Abby guided him towards her computer. She exited the game, which she wasn't actually playing, to show a long list of names and numbers. A database. "Okay," she began to explain. "When Ed was in the hospital he was under morphine, and… and he was rambling about all these things, names and places and stuff."

"Alright," nodded Tim, understanding everything so far.

"Well, I started searching all of them…" she paused to pull out Tim's notebook which she had borrowed, and flipped it to a page with a list of names. "But none of them show up. Look, I started with the places…" she type them in once more, 'Resembool' and the 'Amestris'. They moth came up as 'No Match'.

"W-well… maybe you miss spelled them?" suggested Tim, who was met with a glare from Abby.

"No, McGee! I've tried all the other spellings I can think of, and nothing! And, look, the other names he gave me, Winry, LanFan, Ling and Fu? I can't get anything from them without the last names, but three of those sound Chinese or something. And I such this Cornel Guy, and nada. I even looked for Generals and stuff, you know, encase he got promoted or something? And zip!"

"Maybe… he got promoted twice?"

"McGee! And… and this isn't even the weirdest part!" Abby quickly typed into the search 'Edward Elric', and broadened the search to the whole of the United States. Several seconds of extreme tense past, before a flashing sentence appeared on the screen. 'No matches found.'

An uneasy silence filled he room, except the low music, which echoed out of the CD player. Tim was the first to speak.

"He's… he's not real?"

"It's his name… that can't be his real name. Which means I can't find his parents." Abby sighed heavily, placing her head in her hands. "How could I have been so stupid! I should have run this search ages ago!"

"Come on, Abby. It's not your fault," he reassured her, giving her a comforting hug, and passing her the Caf-Pow.

"You have to promise not to tell!" she demanded.

"Okay, I promise," he said, pointing out his pinky finger. Abby took it in hers, smiling slightly. "So what are you going to do?"

"I don't know. Maybe I'll talk to Ed later. Hey, you'd better get going. I have stuff to do, and Gibbs' will suspicious."

"Okay," he said reluctantly, giving her another quick squeeze, before turning to leave the lab.

"Oh, wait!" she called to him. "I have figured out one thin about him!"

"What?"

Abby grinned. "He's a teenage version of Gibbs!"

* * *

Gibbs had been gone for about half an hour to get his coffee and Abby's Caf-Pow, but as soon as Gibbs walked into the bullpen, he knew something was wrong. For starters, Edwards right metal arm, which for some reason was covered in cobwebs, was hanging out of McGee's draw, who he noticed was on the ground, as if he had just been pushed, staring at the prosthetic in alarm. But that wasn't the weirdest thing. The weirdest thing was Ed himself. He was laughing. Gibbs had barely even seen the kid smile, let alone laugh. He also saw that Tony was laughing too, though that wasn't anything new, and quickly realised that it was probably the older man who came up with the little prank.

"Ow!" winced Tony, rubbing the back of his head where Gibbs had just slapped him. "Sorry, Boss!"

"Ow!" wined Ed, also rubbing the back of his head, one handed; her Gibbs had also slapped him. "What the hell was that for!" he snapped, though he was still smiling.

"For taking your arm off," Gibbs told the boy, before grabbing the metal arm and passing it to him.

Tim stood up and brushed himself down. "Very funny Tony."

"It was, wasn't it?" smiled Tony.

Brushing the last of the fake spider webs of his auto-mail, Ed slipped it up his sleeve, and quickly reattached it to his shoulder. Suddenly, a huge burst of electricity quickly ran though his body, even more painfully then back in the hospital. Whacking his shoulder joint, the current was stopped, and Ed was left panting slightly. He couldn't understand why that kept happening. Thankfully, he didn't think that anyone had noticed, as he had managed to muffle his cry of shock and pain.

"Oh, hear it is!" said Tony, as a women walked over to his desk, holding a large pizza box in her hands.

"Hear you go, Tony," she said happily, handing him the pizza. He had ordered so many pizzas from them over the years, that the delivery people had all learned his name.

"Thank you Amanda," said Tony, handing her the money, an opening the box. He noticed that she was a little damp. "Is it raining outside?"

"Yeah, weird, huh?" Amada said, counting the money. "One minute it was gorges and sunny, and now look. It's pouring down!" She pointed out the window, and sure enough, it was raining very heavily. "Well, see ya later, Tony."

"There you go Ed, one large pizza with everything on top, just like we agreed," said Tony, as Ed grabbed a large slice and took a huge bit. Everyone was really surprised at just how quickly Ed could actually eat.

"Hey, wasn't there another sudden storm a little while ago?" asked Ziva, who was still looking out of the window.

"Yeah, it was… it was that night we found Edward. It only lasted a few minutes," said Tim, also a little puzzled by the fact.

"This is why I don't trust weather men. They're never right! He said that it was meant to be sunny all day today. That isn't sun," Tony said, pointing towards the rain. "What do you think, Ed?"

But Edward never answered. He stopped eating as well, though he was holding a half finished slice in his hand. His golden eyes were staring into space, the gears in his head spinning. Suddenly they widened, he leaped to his feat and began to run down the stair, as fast as his legs would carry him, leaving everyone behind him very confused, shouting at his to come back. But he couldn't go back. He kept running, running straight out of the building, into the pouring rain, not even bothering to pull his hood up. He froze for one second, as he say a quick flash of lighting leap down to earth. But it wasn't lightning. It looked like it, but he could tell it wasn't. A fairly large vibration ran through the ground, like a small earthquake, and Ed knew exactly where he needed to run. He just really hoped that his theory was correct.

* * *

**I'm Evil arn't I? ^^ So, what do you thikn should happen next? please review and tell me!**


	14. Why him?

**I'm so sorry that this has taken so long, but I had to study for some GCSE tests and do some coursework so... yeah, I'm sorry. I'm also sarry that this one is a little short, but I'm going to make it up to you later and wright a longer one, okay? Enjoy!**

* * *

Running urgently through the bustling streets filled with people trying to shelter from the rain, the puddles splashing muddy rainwater behind him, Edward desperately scanned his golden eyes everywhere for something, anything, even just a sign or a clue, as to what he was looking for. His blond hair and clothes clung damply to his skin from the ever-pouring rain and sweat. His cheats heaved with gasping breaths and his chest pounded inside. His auto-mail aced from the sudden change in weather, the joints stiffening, but none of this stopped him.

He practically tripped over his own feet when tried to skid to a halt, as he saw a fairly large crowed all gathered underneath the tarp on the outside of what looked like a restaurant. But they weren't just trying to shelter from the rain, they where all staring at something. His heart pounding heavily against his chest, he licked his lips nervously and started to make his way through the small crowd, slipping and pushing in-between people. However, once her reached the middle, the thing the centre of attention was now what he expected.

"D-Ducky?" Edward asked in surprise. Sure enough, the old English doctor was the one surrounded by the crowed of people, sat at small round table.

"Oh, erm… hello Edward," Ducky greeted, though he didn't seem to fully notice Ed as his eyes didn't move from there gave inform of him. Following his gaze in confusion, Edward saw a huge pile of empty plates and bowls, which had obviously one contained food, as there were still a few odd scraps and pools of ketchup left. For a small second, Edward wondered how he couldn't have noticed them before, however his thought where stopped as soon as he noticed that someone else was sat at the table, sat behind the huge heap of plates, where everyone was looking at. Edward was suddenly hit with an idea that he had never even begun to think of. He tried to shack the suspicions away, but his thoughts where confirmed when he notices, behind the dishes, a long, bushy black pigtail bobbing up and down.

"Ling?!" he yelled in shock. The pigtail froze for a second, before the face of a friend emerged over the mounted of dishes. There was no mistaking those squinty eyes. Yep. It was Ling.

"Hey, Ed! Old buddy, old pall, old friend of mine!" greeted Ling, his usual goofy grin spread wide across his face, a few stray noodles still hanging from his mouth down his chin. Ed merely continued to star at him in disbelief.

"Oh, you too know each other?" asked Ducky.

"Oh, me and Ed go way back!" smile Ling, wiping his face with his long sleeve. "He saved me from starvation a few times, just like you did Doctor Mallard. I've helped him out plenty of times too, you know how much trouble that hot temper of his can get him in? Well, neither can I, but I know it's a heck of a lot!"

"Well, I can't say I'm surprised," smiled Ducky.

"Yeah, tell me about it. You wouldn't believe the stuff he does when he gets mad. I remember a while ago that he actually used himself as bait just to get back at my friend for beating him up. But he is a good guy. Actually not so long ago, I was about to starve to death, and seeing as we didn't have any food he actually picked me up and carried me, can you believe it? He's a real good friend."

"What the hell are you doing here!?" he shouted at Ling, finally snapping out f his daze.

"What, I can just drop by and say 'hi' to a friend?" he asked, pretending to be hurt. "I thought we where friends. We are friends, right Ed?"

"I need to talk to you," he hissed, grabbing hold of Lings upper arm. "Now!" He began to pull him to his feet and drag him through the crowed. He didn't need people listening in on this conversation.

Ducky remained sat at the table, a little confused by Edwards's reaction. That is, until the waiter came and gave him the bill. Then he nearly had a heart attack.

* * *

"Damn that kid," snapped Gibbs, not even bothering to keep his comment to himself, as Ed disappeared out of the building yet again. "Where's he going now?" he asked no on in particular as he got up and started following him, the others close behind him, just as confused as he was. However, as soon as he had stepped out of the building into the pouring rain, Edward was nowhere to be seen.

Gibbs growled angrily. "McGee!"

"Y-yes boss?" he asked, a little worried.

"Find out where that brats parents live and stay there, he might go there, and make sure Abby doesn't go anywhere this time! DiNozzo, David, with me. I'm not about to loose this kid just when we found him again!" he yelled. It was obvious to everyone that Gibbs was fuming with anger and frustration, though they couldn't really blame him for it.

"Erm… err, boss?" called Tim, shifting nervously. That was it. He had to tell him. True he promised Abby that he wouldn't, but he knew he had to. He'd find out sooner or later anyway. Though right then he was trying to work out which was scarier. A mad Gibbs, or a mad Abby.

"Damn it McGee, what?"

"Nothing… nothing at all Boss," he decided quickly. Gibbs rolled his eyes and began to run down the street, Tony and Ziva close behind.

* * *

"What are you doing here!?" Edward repeated himself, as soon as they where down the road and hidden in an alleyway, away from anyone's earshot. Thankfully it had stopped raining by then, so he didn't have to worry about getting wet.

"Oh, come now, is that anyway to treat an old friend of yours?" he said, still with that stupid smirk on his face. It was really starting to annoy Ed.

"Okay, let me rephrase that. _How_ the _**hell**_ _did _you_ get_ here?!"

"Kind of the same way you did," he told him seriously, finally lousing the smile.

"Kind of?"

"Well… I made it back… but you didn't…"

"W… what?" Edward asked, completely confused.

"I came out of Gluttony's stomach. He and Al where both in the same spot we had left them. Gotta tell ya, Al was in pretty bad shape. He was worried sick about you when we where swallowed. And the fact that I came back covered in blood and you didn't, didn't exactly help him. I though that I might have left you behind or something, so I copied that circle thing that you drew. Al used alchemy with Gluttony's stone and I went first. Then I woke up here, past out on the streets, starving and that guy gave me some food."

"But… but how did you get Gluttony to help you?" he asked, trying not to think about how worried Al had been.

Ling smirked slightly. "Well he was feeling guilty for swallowing a 'human sacrifice' and his brother, so we convinced him that his 'Father' would be happy if we could get you back."

"And it took you almost 2 days to do that?!" He yelled, suddenly feeling very angry. He had been stuck here… and Al had been so worried… and he couldn't even try and hurry it up a bit!?

"What are you taking about?" Ling asked, opening his eyes slightly, to show just how serious he was.

"I've been stuck here for 2 days, idiot!?" he shouted.

"Ed… you've been here for only a couple of hours."

Ed froze up. A couple of hours? How was that possible? It was two days, he was sure of it! But then again… that paper he read did say that it was 2009… Oh, how his head hurt.

"A couple of hours?" he repeated, just to make sure.

"A couple of hours," Ling confirmed with a nod of his head. Just then, Edward felt something cold and wet hit his head. It happed again. And again and again. The rain once again started to fall heavily. Suddenly, another flash of, what was not lightning but alchemic reaction, shot through the sky and another shake vibrated under his feet.

"Come on!" Ed told him, grabbing hold of Lings arm again and began running once more down the street.

* * *

**Well, if you have any requests for the next chapter, you know what to do. Please review!**


	15. Vending machines

**Okay, I tried really hard on this because I had to re-write it 5 whole times!!! Anyway, I hoope you like!**

* * *

"Abby! We have a problem!" Tim called ass soon as he stepped into her lab. "Ed's gone AWOL again!"

"What?" she exclaimed, her eyes going wide with fear. "Oh, damn that teenage Gibbs! I'm telling you, when he gets back here, I'm buying that boy a leash! Geez, is it so hard for you to keep an eye on one little, and I really do mean little, though don't tell him I said that - one, little person! I mean, it's not like he's that hard to miss! I mean how many kids do you see with a long crimson coat and long blond hairs in a braid, that you know, aren't girls? And lets not forget the fact that he just got out of hospital! You know what that could do to him? What if his wound opens up!? Heck, I'm still surprised that Gibbs even let him out today! If I where in charge of him, he wouldn't have even been out of bed for half the week! Gibbs was a dad, he should no better, but know, he just lets him go gallivanting around!"

"Erm, Abby-" McGee tried to but in, but Abby was in her full 'rant mode'.

"Oh! And did he even think about Ed's auto-mail? Let me answer that for you, No, he did not! Argh! But, you know what? Gibbs isn't even the reason why I'm so angry! It's Edward! Edward, that stupidly smart, wise ass of a teenager. You know that this is the third time in two days he's done something like this? Okay, I'll admit one of them was partly my fault, but that excuses nothing! Nothing I say! Seriously, who does this? I'd hate to see what he's done with his guardians; they'll probably be as grey as Gibbs is now from stress! Oh, no!" she suddenly studded, before quickly pulling a single long strand of her hair which had fallen oddly in front of her face.

"Look! Now I'm going grey! Great, yet another thing for me to worry about! Oh, I swear to you, McGee, that when I find Ed, I am going to give him a piece of my mind! And not just a tiny little slither, but a huge, great big slice!"

"Abby!" Tim told her more firmly, grabbing hold of her shoulders and staring her straight in her eyes. "It's young to be okay, alright? It's going to be okay."

Abby blinked and nodded. Those blinks forced the release of many wet tears, which had formed in her eyes whilst she had been talking, to spill down her cheeks. Tim stared at her wide-eyed for a moment, before pulling her into a gently but secure hug. "It'll be okay," he repeated over and over aging in a soft voice, gently stroking her hair.

Abby sniffed and whipped her eyes on the man's shirt. She couldn't explain it. She wasn't sure why she was feeling this way. It was almost instinctive. Edward wasn't just some kid who was part of a case anymore. He was closer to her somehow. Ever since the hospital when he looked so venerable and helpless. Or maybe it was before that. When it happed, she wasn't entirely sure. But now she felt so protective of him. It was almost, dare she think it, motherly. Or maybe more along the lines of older sister. Whatever it was, she knew it wasn't about to go away.

"Thank goodness of waterproof mascara," Abby smiled when she pulled away from Tim.

"Yeah… look, the reason we have a problem… it's not completely because Ed's gone."

"It's not?"

"No… Its…"

Abby's eyes whet wide with realisation. "Gibbs wasn't us to call his parents." It was more of a statement then a theory.

"Yeah."

"But we can't because his names not registered." Another statement.

"Yes."

"And you haven told him?" A question this time.

"…No."

"Come on," she commanded McGee, grabbing him by the arm and began to walk towards the door of the lab.

"What are you doing?" Tim asked nervously, seeing the determinedness in her eyes.

"What do you think I'm doing?!" she asked him as she grabbed her coat with her free hand. "We're going looking for him before Gibbs finds him."

"No!" Timothy told her firmly, stopping dead in his tracks. "You are not going after him, you remember what happened last time?"

"Yes, I remember," she said simply like it wasn't a big deal.

"Look, Abs," McGee started, deciding to change tactics. "Even if we do find him, then what?"

"Not sure yet. I'll figure something out."

Tim was about to continue his argument with her, but just then Ducky appeared walking down the stair which the two where now climbing. "Oh, hello you two," the old doctor grated, though he didn't seam as happy as he usually did.

"Hey Duck, can't stop, gotta find Ed," Abby said quickly as she continued to walk up the stairs.

"Oh. Say, if you do find him, tell him that his friend owns me for all that food!" he called, causing the two to stop and look back at him in confutation.

"Food?"

"Yes. I help a young man who was almost past out in the middle of the streets from starvation. I haven't seen someone eat so much, never! He said that he had some money, but Edward came by and asked to talk to him for a bit. Apparently they knew each other. But the odd bit was that they never came back and I got stuck with the bill."

"Where and when!" Abby demanded desperately.

"That little Chinese place a few streets down, you know the one where we celebrated your last birthday Abigail? But why do you…" However, he didn't finish his question, as the two had already ran up the stairs.

* * *

"Are you sure that he's this way?" Ling asked Ed. The two had probably been walking in the same direction for half an hour now and had still not seen any sign of Al.

"He has to be… maybe we passed him already…" said Edward, getting even more worried by the minute.

"I doubt it. Lets face it, he's not _that_ hard to miss."

"Oh shut up and just help me look!" snapped Ed.

"Okay, okay, Geez! You don't have to get so touch - Oh my god!!!" Ling suddenly yelled, staring down the road.

"What? What is it? Is it Al?" Ed asked desperately, stretching on his tip toes to try and get a better look, even though the place they where now was practically empty, as people where not trusting the weather that day.

"No, look!" he said happily, grinning once more, as he ran a little down the street until he stopped in front of what looked like a large black box with glass at the front. Oddly enough, inside where lots and lots of small wrapped up items, all in rows and connected through some sort of a large spring. The labels on the packets all had very odd names, such as 'Snickers' and 'Fruit Pastels'.

"What is this?" Ed asked curiously, having never seen anything like it before.

"I don't know… but I know that the stuff inside is food!" Ling said happily, his grin widening even more.

"How can you tell?"

"It's a gift," he told his simply.

"And I'm not suppressed by that," he sighed. "Come on, we gotta find Al."

"Huh!? No, no, no, not yet!" Ling wined, griming hold of Ed's arm. "Come on! I want to try some of this stuff! What's the point of coming all this way if I don't get to try the food!"

Ed sighed heavily, knowing that Ling wasn't going to budge. "Okay, if I get you some, will you stop wining about your stomach and help me find Al?"

"You know it!" he said, cheerful once more.

"Okay, fine!" grunted Edward, turning towards the box. "Alright, how do you open this thing?"

"How should I know?"

"Oh, wait…" Ed looked more closely and saw that along the side there where instruction. Apparently, all you had to do was put in some money and the code and you would get one thing. Rummaging in his pocket, he found some change from when Abby had given him some money. "Okay, what do you want?"

"Oh, this one! No, no, wait, this one… no… how about this… nah, maybe…"

"Oh, just pick one already!" he snapped, not wanting to waist any time.

"Okay, this one," Ling declared, pointing at an odd shaped box, which was ladled 'Smarties'.

Ed slotted in the money and pushed the buttons, causing the spin to turn (which earned a fascinated "Ahh!" from them both) and made the packet fall to the bottom where Ling eagerly scooped it out.

"Yay! Thanks!!!" He said happily, as he opened the tube and tipped some of the contents into the palm of his hand. He raised one eyebrow. "What are these supposed to be?" he asked Ed, holding up a handful of small, round, brightly coloured things.

"I haven't a clue, now come on!" Ed demanded, dragging Ling behind him.

Ling shrugged and popped one of the things in his mouth. His mouth slowly spread into a large, happy smile. "Oh, wow! Theses are so amazing! You gotta try some Ed!"

Edward felt his eyebrow start to twitch. "Thank goodness you don't have diabetes," he muttered under his breath.

"Dia-what?" Ling asked, his mouth full of the sweet tasting things.

"Diabetes," Edward repeated, not stopping as they walked down the street. "It's some sort of a condition here. This guy I know, Palmer, he has it. It means that you can't eat to much sugar or you die."

"How?"

"I don't know the facts behind it, it's not like I'm a doctor!"

"No, I mean how do you know that guy? Palmer?"

"Oh," Ed realised, feeling a little awkward, though he wasn't really sure why. "He's sort of one of these group of people who I've been staying with."

"Like that doctor guy?"

"His name is Ducky, and you do know that your going to have to pay him back for the meal," he said, glaring back at Ling.

"Wha?!" Ling half asked on friend, stopping momentarily from eating what little was left of his food. "Oh, come on, Ed! Be a friend here, you know I don't have the money!"

"Then get a job you hobo!?" he yelled, storming of once more down the street, leaving Ling to try and hurry up to him.

* * *

Much to Abby's regret, when she and Tim arrived at the restaurant, there was no sign of Edward. They had asked some of the staff, who mentioned that they did see him leave with a friend. They described him as a tall Asian young man, with Chinese like clothes and a long black ponytail.

"Well, what now, Abby?" asked Tim, was still thought that this was all a bad idea but didn't dare say anything.

Abby squinted her eyes and her forehead creased, as she desperately tried to think of something, anything, to make them find Ed before Gibbs did. Suddenly, she twirled around on her heals, her black pigtails whipping about, to face McGee.

"All right, Timmy, here's the plan," she told him in a firm, almost Gibbs like voice. "You will head back to the base, I want you to track down the target by any means necessary. I want you looking at any camera footage you can get your hands on for a 5-mile radius, even if we just get a glimpse. I also want a full surveillance of the base, should the target return for any reason what so ever. If you see anything, I want you to notify me immediately through you COM. I will return within 3 hours. If the enemy appears before I do, I must be notified and you must stall them for as long as possible. Any questions?"

McGee looked completely confused. "Huh?"

Abby sighed. "Go back to NCIS, wait for Ed if he comes back or at least try to track him down. If you get anything call me on my cell, and let me no if Gibbs comes back. Try to keep him busy as well. Okay?"

"Abby, I'm not leaving you alone. Do you remember the last time Tony did that?"

"Your not Tony!"

"That's besides the point!"

"Look, McGee. If you don't get back to NCIS and Gibbs gets back, you are going to have to explain that you dragged me all the way out here, against his order. And what do you think he's going to do then?"

Tim shuddered at the thought. "But…but _you_ dragged _me_ here!"

"True. True, but who do you think he's going to believe?" she asked him, smirking evilly.

* * *

**Okay, here's your chance. You do you think should find Al? Tell me what you think, and please review!**


	16. Run, find, hurt

**Guys, I am soooo sorry for the wait!!! Get this, I finally got hit with inspirations for this story got it almost all written out, and data-eating viruses attack my computer! Everything got deleted along with my email, so I had to set my old one, but I had an old account with that, so my old account had to be forwarded to my mother (which I hated doing!), so I could fix it. So… yeah, this one is a very poor version of what I had previously written, so please take pity on me!!! Anyway, here you go… oh, and MERRY CHRITSTMAS TO ALL MY REVIWERS!**

* * *

Edward stormed down the streets, leaving that half-witted prince behind him. How could he not get how crucial it was to find his little brother, is only brother at that! Heck, his only family! Did Ling not understand that? Though, now that he thought about it, Ed wasn't really sure about his friend's family, other then his father. But that was bedsides the point! His baby brother could be all alone in this strange place, scared out of his mind. Though, in all honesty, it would probably be everyone else around him that would be a little nervous. But Edward knew Alphonse, and he knew how much of a girl he could be, so he really did have to find him, quick. Suddenly, he froze. Literally, stopping dead in his tracks, not moving a muscle even to breath, his golden eye wide, staring across the rode. There, he saw the one person, besides Roy Mustang, who got him so riled up and angry that he sometimes wanted to boil him alive from the inside. Gibbs. Alone. Unfortunately for Ed, he had spotted him too. He was glaring. He sprinted after Edward. Like a rabbit on the run from a fox, Ed spun on the spot, dashing down the roads, leaving in and out of the people. The one thing on his mind was _'I have to get away from him, or else he'll just drag me back, like always'._

* * *

Abby practically marched down the, by now, dark streets, her steps being fuelled by her worry, anxiety and fear, which were all growing by the minute. She must have been walking around aimlessly for hours now. She knew it was stupid, and she knew it was dangerous, but she couldn't help it. She needed to find him, and she needed to find him soon. But… she had to admit; she was getting a little scared for her self as well. She must have walked into the wrong side of town, as almost everywhere she looked there where youth with their hoods pulled up, staggering around with their friends, obviously drunk. But she didn't feel to worried, at least not until a group actually spotted her and advanced towards her. Abby thought about crossing the road or turning around, but it was to late, as they had already flocked around her in a circle, like a pack of lions about to eat a tiny lamb.

"Hey, baby," smirked one of them, his voiced slurred.

"Hey, this girls a Goth," pointed out one of them, taking a swig out of his can.

"My Ex was a Goth… she was really good," said the first, walking closer to Abby.

"Leave me alone, or else I will rip of your arm and beat you with it," hissed Abby, using a quote that Ziva had said a while ago, hoping to shake them of. No such luck. Her voice came out higher then she had hoped, obviously showing just how shared she actually was.

"Feisty," grinned another teen. "Just how I like them." He lunged forward, grabbing roughly onto her upper arm, trying to pull her into a kiss. Abby managed to knee him in a place no man ever wants to be kicked. He ended up on the ground, gasping for breath, holding his wounded area.

"You're a pretty broad, but," one of them smashed an empty bottle against a wall, busting the end to leave it jagged and dangerous, his voice serious for one. "You really shouldn't have done that." He walked towards her, but she was stiff from fear, staring at the bottle, to do anything, even move out of the way. She felt her heart thumping hard against her chest, still staring at the possibly deadly weapon that she was sure he was going to use on her. Suddenly, a dark shadow loomed over both her and the men, making it even darker then it already was. She finally looked away from the glass, to see what was so large that it would cast such a huge shadow. There, stood behind the one with the broken bottle, was a huge, grey suit of armour, with growing red eyes. Abby almost fainted at the mere sight of it; thinking for a second that whoever was inside the armour was about to kill her instead of the teen.

It tapped said teen's shoulder, and said, "I don't think that's a very nice way to treat a lady." The voice inside echoed through the metal armour, but besides that, it sounded very young, like the voice of a child.

The boys got one look at the huge man, before suddenly bolting down the street, apart from the injured man, who hobbled. Abby though of doing the same but then a thought accrued to her. Did he just save her? Or was he just doing it to get to her instead of them? However, the second theory was ruled out, when he asked her, in a very concerned voice, "Are you okay, ma'am?"

* * *

"Ed! Edward!" Ling called out loudly, tying to find his friend, who had stormed of ahead of him, leaving him behind. Honestly, he had no manners what so ever, leaving a good friend like him behind, especially when he took the time to try and find him again. Now he was stuck here, in a really weird place, full of even weirder people, not knowing what to do. But worst of all, he was starting to get really hungry!

Suddenly, two people, well one person, but there was another with him, turned a corner, and crashed forcefully into him, sending the two of them plummeting town on the ground, the strange man on top of him.

* * *

'_How on Earth did I let her talk me into this?!'_ McGee mentally screamed angrily inside his own head. There he sat alone in the bullpen, behind his desk, looking blankly at the computer screen. How exactly Abby expected him to find Edward was beyond him. Did she honestly expect him to be able to find a small teenage boy in a huge place like this? He had already tried hacking into several CCTV cameras in the area, but still nothing. Still, he wasn't about to get Abby upset about this. He had seen on the Discovery Channel just how aggressive mother bears could be when it involved their young, and compared to Abby right then they where just baby kittens. But there was one thing that he could do. He could find out if Gibbs had caught him yet. Grabbing his phone, he quickly died Tony's cell phone number. It rang for a few seconds before someone answered it.

"Damn it McGee, this had better be important!" Tony practically screamed down the phone, almost defining Tim. Hw couldn't help but wonder why he was in such a foul mood, by then he also recognised a sound in the background. Sirens. And an engine. And also a lot of movement.

"Tony, where are you?" he asked, worried.

"I'm in a freaking ambulance, that where I am!" he yelled back.

"Is it Ed? Is he hurt again? Or Abby?"

"No, it's not that stupid-blond-arrogant kid! It's me! I freaking stabbed!" he shouted, though he didn't use the word 'freaking'. Now that he mentioned it, he did sound like he was in pain. "Wait a sec… why would you think Abby-" but thankfully Tony couldn't finish his sentence, as one of the paramedics must have snatched the phone out of his hands, leaving Tim in absolute confusion.

* * *

So... how do you think it happened? please revie, and I promise the next one will by longer!


	17. Tears

**I know, it's been ages, I'm really sorry! :( But, I'm back! I want to thank I-kill-for-hugs for the help with this, and I will try to uplode a little sooner next time. Hope you enjoy!**

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"Hey, what are you doing?!" Tony snapped at the paramedic who had just taken away his phone, who merely rolled his eyes at him. "And why are you here!" he yelled at the young Asian man who had climbed into the ambulance with them. This man, just so happened to be the man that had got him in this situation. Oh, yeah, this was the guy who had stabbed him. Well… technically stabbed him. If you call running into him, both falling to the ground and one landing on the tip of the others consoled knife stabbing, which Tony did.

The man pointed at Ziva, who was also with them. "She dragged me in," he told him, simply.

"It seamed like a good idea," she said calmly. "If you want to sue him then it would be easier to bring him along."

"He's not going to sue me," the man said confidently with a goofy smirk.

"Give be one good reason why I shouldn't!" yelled Tony.

"Because, you where the one that ran into me, it was an accident. And besides, I barely grazed you."

"'Barely a graze'!" he mocked, as he pointed to the wound. "You call this 'barely a graze'?"

"I do," said the paramedic, who swatted away Tony's hand as he examined the graze of his side.

* * *

"Y… yeah… yeah, I'm… I'm okay…" Abby gasped, unable to look away from the huge suit of armour which loomed over her, it's eyes glowing crimson red. Almost ever instinct inside her was telling her to run, or scream or do something, but then… when she heard the voice inside. He couldn't be much older then a ten years old boy. The boy seemed to understand her discomfort, as he backed away a little, looking sheepish… well, as sheepish as a suit of armour could.

"Oh… okay then. I'm glad. Well… see you, take care," he said, as he was just about to turn around and walk away. Abby suddenly felt a hint of guilt in her stomach.

"Wait!" she told his quickly, making him stop and turn around again. "I'm Abby, what's your name?" she asked, offering him her hand.

He took it happily, and surprisingly gently, before answering, "My name Alphonse. It's nice to meat you, Abby."

She froze; staring up at him, but this time in pure amazement, as she heard the name and the memories for Edward in the hospital started flooding back to her. 'I need you to find Alphonse. I need you to find my little brother. Really tall and shiny. He looks kinda mean but he's the biggest softie I know. He's always trying to sneak cats in his body, but I can hear then scratching his chest.' This man – well, teenager – was Ed's little brother? "E…Elric?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said brightly. "How'd you know that?"

Abby's smile began to grow, spreading wide across her face. "Your Edwards little brother!?"

"You know Brother?!" he asked quickly and desperately, crouching down a little bit, so he was able to grip hold of both her upper arms, though gently so he didn't hurt her.

Abby nodded, still smiling. "Yes! He's staying with us."

"Really!?" he asked, a little in disbelief.

"Yeah."

"Yes!" Al yelled happily, letting go of Abby whilst he jumped up and down in obvious beyond happy, like a young child would do if he became exited about something. "Please, can you take me to him? Please?!"

Abby nodded quickly. "Of course." Suddenly, she remembered the fact that she still hadn't a clue where Edward actually was. But looking into those hopeful eyes, she couldn't tell him that. "We can go wait for him down at NCIS, come on," she held out her hand to him, which he eagerly grasped, but again, very carefully, and allowed her to lead him along.

* * *

Two days. The kid had only been with them for two days and had already caused more trouble then they would care to admit. He had been kidnapped, hospitalised, endangered the team and above all, couldn't stay put for more then five minute! Gibbs was beyond mad, beyond angry even. He was so furious and irritated that he was seriously considering shooting the boy just so that he wouldn't cause any more trouble. He probably wouldn't have done it of course, but the thought was very tempting. Especially when he was running after him for what felt like the hundredth time. And how that boy could run! He was thankful for his marine training and general good health or else Gibbs might not have been able to keep up with him. Edward however, was not so happy about this. He was worn out as he was, but chased after Gibbs was really making him tier out.

He continued to run; at least he was until he stepped awkwardly on a shallow puddle and slipped on the damp pavement. The collapsed face first to the ground, but before he could scramble back to his feet, he felt a strong hand on the back of his shoulder and another wrap around his waist, hauling him up to his feet. Ed immediately started to struggle, twisting and wriggling, desperate to get out of the older man's iron grasp, but without and success.

"Let me go, Gibbs," he screamed at the man, still trying to get away from him.

"No until you calm down," he growled at him, trying to steady the boy on his feet.

"Let go!" Ed spat at him, as he managed to elbow him the gut, allowing him to escape his clutches. However, he was too worn out to begin running once more, so he simply slumped his back against a brick wall of a building, never for a second taking his eyes of Gibbs.

"Ed, I just want to talk," he told him, trying to hide some of his frustration and angry behind his calm voice.

"Like hell you do!" Ed scoffed, panting heavily. "You just want be to come back with you. Well you know what?"

"Look, I understand why you're so angry at me. I accused you of murder straight away, you've been kidnapped, hospitalised No one would like that."

To Gibbs' surprised, Ed let out a low chuckle. "I can't believe you. You think this is all about you? Because it's really not," he shouted at him, backing away a little.

"No, it's not about me, this is about you! I can't… I just don't understand what goes on in that head of yours! You've been running of every five minutes, and when you're not disappearing your moping around, spacing out all the time. I know that something is the matter with you, so why don't you just tell me already? If you tell use then we could help you."

"…No you can't…" Ed mumbled, feeling a knot in his throat start to swell up uncomfortably. Who was he ever trying to kid anymore? He had spent hours on a wild goose chase, trying to find his little brother. Normal he could find him in a matter of seconds, whether it was by just spotting him out of a crowd, or noticing people cast awkward glances in a certain direction or even listening for the unmistakable sound of his footsteps. But here, nothing. Nothing at all. Maybe he didn't follow Ling. Maybe he got stuck in Gluttony's stomach. Maybe… maybe his blood seal got broken going through the gate. Or maybe he actually got his body back but was stuck at the gate. And even if he did get through with his body… it was so thin and weak that he could have died within minutes. Ed started to feel large, hot tears spill from his wet eyes down his cheeks.

Gibbs couldn't help but stare in confusion and shock. Confusion because he hadn't a clue what he was talking about, and Shock because he hadn't seen Ed even get sad, let alone cry, not even while he got stabbed or was in the hospital. His fatherly instincts took over a little bit, as he step forward and tried to reach out to him, but Edward simply stepped farther away, glaring at him with burning golden eyes, but a saddened expression on his face.

"Don't touch me," he warned, though his voice broke a little. God, what was happening to him? He never cried, never! Why was he giving up on trying to find Al? Why was him mind jumping to conclusions so quickly? Why was he so tired, but he seamed unable to rest for just a little while? In his frustration, more tears started to roll down his face before he could angrily wipe them away with his sleeves.

"Why can't I help?" Gibbs asked his calmly, choosing not to try and get closer to him again.

"Because… because he's my little brother, I should be able to look after him, but I can't! I never could!" he shouted, more tears falling. He felt both his knew give way underneath him, as he crumbled to the ground helplessly. Gibbs was besides him in a second, crouching down next to him, and wrapping his arms around the teen before he could even stop to think what was going on. Ed tried to back away, yelling at the man to leave him alone, but Gibbs simple held him firmer. Eventually, he did stop struggling, but his body became rigged and uncomfortable, refusing to melt into the man's embrace. Finally, the crying stopped, and Gibbs let him go, placing his hands firmly on the kid's shoulders and helping him up to his feet. He looked a mess. His blond hair was all over the place, his face was blotchy and tearstained and his eyes where puffy and red with dark black bags underneath them.

"Yeah done?" he asked softly. Ed nodded, as he sighed heavily and wiped away the last of his tears.

"I don't get it… what's wrong with me?" he asked, though he doubted even Gibbs knew.

"Well, you haven't had much sleep, you've probably got delayed shock from getting attacked, I can tell by just looking at you that you've got a heck of a lot of stress, not to mention the fact that you could have withdrawal symptom from the morphine at the hospital," he explained, smiling a little.

"Oh…" he mumbled.

"Look, Ed. If you let use help, then we can. But you have to tell use what's going on, we're not mind readers. I'd we know it's something big, it would have to be for you to do all this, so just tell us, Okay?" he said kindly.

A few seconds of silence passed, before Ed nodded his head and told him, "Okay."

"Good. Right, let's get head back. You can explain everything there," Gibbs said, slapping him on his back and walking besides him.

* * *

This was bad. He could tell just by looking at his body that something was very wrong. The blood just kept pouring out of him. Why wouldn't it stop? Of course, he knew the answer to that, but he didn't want to believe it. Truth be told, he was scared. Terrified, even. There he was, alone with no sign of help, and completely helpless. What was he meant to do? Just lie there and wit for it to stop? Oh, how he hated this. In this place on this side, he was barely anymore then a human, and that thought disgusted him to the very core.

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**Well, here comes another one! :D**

**And please don't flame me! I know that it's a little OOC, but bear in mind everything that has happened in this crazy, impossible fan fiction, okay?**

**Please review! **


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